Connection between Puppets and Plants
by Raffee
Summary: What will happen when a prodigy of the Shokubutsu Clan is raised alongside the red-headed puppeteer in the deserted village known as Sunagakure? Will their feelings for each other blossom as they both grow up? Sasori x OC
1. The Abolishment

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*****

**Chapter I**

**The Abolishment**

The rain storm was blowing boisterously in Sunagakure, a very rare moment to occur in an infertile desert. The faint sound of heavy footsteps could be heard in the middle of the damp street, mixing with the sound of the thunder and heavy raindrops.

An old woman was running through the storm, carrying a small baby in her arms. She held the baby tightly, afraid to look back as well as to let go. The slaughters were not too far behind her, chasing both her and the baby in ebullience. All the other villagers were inside each of their own house, too afraid to go out because of the storm, and unaware that the whole Shokubutsu clan was being assassinated by those raged fire ninjas.

The woman abruptly stopped when she saw the other slaughters appeared in front of her. She couldn't run anywhere since she was surrounded by the fire ninjas.

_"The Hinote Clan is coming! Get Haruka out of here!"_

_"Please protect my daughter, Okaasan. You don't have to worry about us, just get her out and run as fast as you can!"_

She held the baby in her arms protectively, remembering what her daughter and son-in-law said before she ran away. The Fire Ninjas were stepping closer to her, getting ready to murder her along with the innocent baby. One of the Nins raised his kunai and aimed it at the trembling old woman.

_I won't let you die, Haruka..._

She was about to get ready for the impact, when suddenly, she heard the baby cried. Then, the ground below them started shaking, the quake increased every second, and it soon managed to get the fire nins to fall down on the ground. Strange enough, the old woman along with the other houses in the village didn't seem to be affected by the vibration.

The crying grew louder and louder, making one of the fire nins groaned in annoyance. He stood up shakily and threw his kunai at the baby.

"DIE!"

Before he could even release it from his grasp, suddenly, hundreds of huge roots bursted out of the ground below him, wrapping them on the fire nins bodies and pulling them back into the ground. Loud screaming could be heard in the air, as the roots disappeared into the solid earth, a huge tree grew in front of the old woman's eyes, right on the spot where the fire nins had been sucked into the earth. Red leafs slowly grew on the trunks of the trees, and soon, the top part of the tree was covered with them.

The woman's eyes were wide, her mouth hung open. The baby was able to do all of this with simple cry?

She stared at the baby in disbelief, whom had stopped crying and giggling instead. She put on a smile on her face, and hugged the baby tightly in her chest. She took a last look at the baby before the baby fell asleep, that was when she realized the baby's eyes had turned piercing green instead of solid black.

_Tasuki was right... she is the prodigy of our clan... _she thought to herself, staring at the sleeping form in her arms.

"You really are something, ne?" she whispered to herself. She turned around the proceeded on going to the Kazekage's office. She would wait there until morning, when the Kazekage would arrive, and she would definitely tell him what had happened to the Shokubutsu clan.

She walked toward the office right away, but unknown to her, a certain kanji had been craved right on the front of the tree that had grown on the spot not too long ago. And it read:

_Shokubutsu no Haruka.  
_


	2. The Meeting

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter II**

**The Meeting**

She was sitting in the kitchen, enjoying her warm cup of tea while reading her new book which was about 'plants and flowers'. As she was about to take another sip of her favorite drink, suddenly, a familiar scream was heard from upstairs, which made her almost spill her drink on the floor.

"EMMI BAA-SAMA!! THE MONSTER IS TRYING TO EAT ME!!!"

She sighed and put the cup down on the table, along with the book. She calmly dragged her feet upstairs, toward her granddaughter's room. What could she have possibly gone into right now?

She opened the door only to find Haruka whimpering on the bed in fright, staring at a certain thing on the floor in front of her.

"What is it now, dear?" she asked.

Haruka turned to face her grandmother and yelled out. "THAT MONSTER, OBAA-SAMA! IT'S GONNA EAT ME!"

Emmi rolled her eyes, thinking that it must be another cockroach or something like that. She approached the bug and noticed that it was indeed a scorpion. She stomped on it quickly and disposed its dead body into the trash bin outside. Her 4-years-old granddaughter walked after her and eyed the trash bin from behind her.

"What is that monster called, obaa-sama?" she asked. Emmi chuckled at this and ruffled her brunette hair.

"That's not a monster, dear. That is called a scorpion. You should watch out from its tail, because it's poisonous." She explained.

"S-scorpion?" Haruka asked. "It sure is scary..."

Again, Emmi couldn't help but to roll her eyes at her granddaughter. Seriously, Haruka had some fright issues. She was afraid of almost every single thing in the house! But maybe it was normal for someone her age.

"Oh, speaking of scorpion, I want you to meet a friend of mine who just moved here 2 days ago." Emmi told her.

"Yay! A newcomer! Let's go welcome her, obaa-sama!" she exclaimed while taking her grandmother's hand in her own. Emmi chuckled and walked out of the house together with her granddaughter.

* * *

**  
~Haruka's POV~**

"We're here." Emmi said after 5 minutes of walking. I stared at the house in front of me in excitement, but quickly hid behind my grandmother as she knocked on the door.

It's not long before the door was opened, revealing a short white-haired old lady in it. Her face lit up when she saw Emmi lingering on her doorstep.

"Emmi! It's been so long! Hyahyahyahya!" she laughed while hugging Ir grandmother tightly.

"Yeah, Chiyo! I've missed I so much! Ohohohoo!" Emmi said, hugging her friend back.

The two elders shared their hugs a weird laughter for a minute, causing my right eye to twitch a little. Then surprisingly, Chiyo turned her head to me and stopped laughing.

"Oooh, I didn't know you have a granddaughter, Emmi!" she said while smiling at me. "What's your name, little one?" she asked. Emmi pushed me toward her friend and I quickly bowed in respect.

"My name is Shokubutsu no Haruka and I'm 4 years old." I said while smiling.

"You're in the same age as my grandchild, Haruka-chan!" Chiyo laughed and laughed before finally letting me and my grandmother into the house.

I took a seat across from my grandmother and Chiyo, while looking around the room interestedly. The living room is not too big, just like my own. There was some old furniture in the corners of the room, which I found rather antique since I don't have any ancient ones back in my house.

Suddenly, Chiyo snapped me out of Ir trance by calling out my name.

"I'll tell my grandson to come downstairs, I'm sure he'll be happy to finally meet a friend!" she smiled before screaming her lungs out. "SASORI!!! THERE'S A GUEST HERE! YOU SHOULD COME HERE AND WELCOME THEM!"

My body tensed up when I heard her screaming. "S-S-Sasori...?" I whispered and walked over to my grandmother. She laughed at me and pat my head in a comforting way.

"No no, she didn't mean the real scorpion, dear." She assured me. (For those who don't know, Sasori means Scorpion in Japanese)

"Oh. Phew..." I sighed in relief and let go of me grand mother. I could hear a sound of footsteps coming downstairs.

"You shouldn't scream like that when we're having a guest, Chiyo baa-sama..."

I looked at the owner of the voice, and saw a boy with red hair and lazy grey eyes staring down at his grandmother from the stairs. He didn't seem to be interested on welcoming his guests, judging by the tone of his voice.

"Hyahahahaha... My bad..." Chiyo laughed again. "Come here, Sasori. I want you to meet my friend, Emmi, and her granddaughter, Haruka. She's in the same age as you, I'm sure that you will both be great friends!"

Sasori stared at me when he finally got down from the stairs. His eyes bored into mine with no sign of emotions in it, making me grin in nervousness.

"Uh... hi! I'm Haruka! Nice to meet you, Sasori!" I said to him, but he just ignored me and went to greet my grandmother instead.

"Now now, Sasori, you don't need to be so shy around Haruka-chan! You should go play with her in your room, while me and Emmi hang out here in the living room! Hyahahaha!" Chiyo said and took a seat beside my grandmother.

I looked at Sasori, who was walking upstairs on his own. He stopped in the middle of it and glanced back at me. "Well? Are you coming or not?" He asked.

I nodded and quickly caught up behind him and went inside his room.

There's a bed in the middle of the room right next to the window, and I saw bunch of weird gears and other things near his desk. I closed the door behind me and followed him further inside.

"What are those things?" I asked, pointing at the wooden stuffs that lied in the right corner of the room.

"They're my puppets." He answered, still not looking at me. He went to his desk and began working on things. I took a peek from his shoulder to see what he was doing.

"Y-You make those?" I asked, feeling intimidated by the gaze of the dolls that he was making.

"Of course. Why do you ask?" he asked me back, hearing the hint of nervousness in my voice.

"Oh, nothing... they're just kind of... scary somehow." I said and backed away from him. Suddenly, I felt something cold was holding onto my right leg. I looked down and screamed when I saw a hand was holding onto my leg. I shook it off and ran behind Sasori.

"Wh-what is that thing?!" I asked, still shocked from the previous incident. Sasori chuckled and took the hand in his own.

"This is one of the materials that I use to make my puppets." He explained while waving the hand in front of my face. "Don't tell me you're afraid of it..."

"O-Of course not! I was just surprised to see it moved by itself, that's what!" I said, defending myself.

"It didn't move by itself. I made it move." He said and raised his right hand in front of the puppet. The next thing I know, some blue chakra strings came out from the tip of his fingers, and attached themselves onto the hand of the puppet. When he flicked his finger, the hand jolted up and landed right on my head.

"AAAAAAH! GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" I yelled while running around, screaming.

Sasori laughed at me when I tripped on one of the puppets on the floor and fell on the ground with a 'thud'. I glared at the laughing Sasori while throwing the hand at him. "That's not funny!" I yelled.

"It is to me." He answered, still chuckling a bit.

I scowled while standing up, dusting myself. Then, the door creaked open and Chiyo came in together with my grandmother.

"I see you two are having fun here!" Chiyo smiled. "But it's time for Haruka to go home now. She needs to help her grandmother with the grocery shopping."

I gladly skipped my way out of the room and stuck my tongue out at Sasori. He scowled at me, muttering something like 'scardy cat', but I didn't quite catch it.

"Don't be so upset, Sasori! Haruka will come back here tomorrow to play with you while Chiyo and I go on a mission together! Isn't that nice?" Emmi said and my face suddenly fell.

Great, I'm going to spend more times with this red-headed jerk?


	3. The Accident

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter III**

**The Accident**

**~Haruka's POV~**

I had been going to Sasori's house every day, and I had also got to know him better. But I never dared to go inside his room, since the puppets that he made always freaked me out. When Chiyo and Emmi left the two of us alone in the house, I just hung out at the living room while Sasori was inside his room. We only talked when we were having lunch and dinner together, which had been prepared by none other than Sasori's grandmother.

Once again, my grandmother dropped me in Sasori's house, but this time, I had to stay in his house until tomorrow. Emmi and Chiyo were going on a mission for 2 days, I had no other choice but to have a sleepover at Sasori's resident.

"I'm sorry I have to leave you here for a while, Haruka-chan. I know it must be hard for you to not celebrate your 5th birthday with me." Emmi said while patting my head.

"It's okay, obaa-sama..." I sighed heavily.

"But maybe you could get Sasori to celebrate it with you! That would be fun, right?" she cheered me up, which only made me more depressed.

_Yeah right, knowing him, he'll probably treat it like other regular days..._ I thought, rolling my eyes.

My grandmother gave a knock on Chiyo's front door as soon as we arrived there. Chiyo greeted me cheerfully, like always, and let us both went inside. It wasn't long until she and my grandmother left the house. I sighed and took a seat on the couch.

After 10 minutes of rolling over and over on the couch, I decided to go upstairs to find Sasori. Who knows, maybe he was feeling as bored as I was!

I knocked on the door while calling out his name. "Sasori! It's me! Can I come in?"

"No." Came his stern reply.

I grunted and crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I'm gonna tell Chiyo baa-sama about this when she gets hooomee!" I threatened. I heard a cursing noise from inside the room before Sasori finally unlocked the door and let me in. He closed the door behind him and stared lazily at me.

"What do you want?" he asked, knowing that I would never go here unless I had something important to tell him, which was never important to him at all.

"Do you know my date of birth?" I asked cheerfully and he only shook his head uncaringly. "November 10th! You know what that means?" I asked again, hoping he would realize that today was my birthday.

"It makes me 2 days older than you." He replied before proceeding on going back to his previous work. My eyes widened at this and I quickly ran up to him.

"Your birthday was 2 days ago???" I asked and he merely nodded. "Why didn't you tell me? We could've celebrated it together!"

He put his screwdriver back on his desk and looked back at me. "Why should I? It's not like it is important or anything..." he answered.

"Of course it is! Gosh, Sasori, why do you have to be so indifferent! C'mon, let's go outside and buy a birthday cake for both of us!" I exclaimed while taking his arm in my hand.

"No." He said and yanked his arm away from my grasp. "If you want to celebrate some stupid birthday with some stupid cake, go do it yourself. I'm not joining you." He trailed off before heading back to work on his puppet.

I stuck your tongue out at him and walked out of his room. "Suit yourself then!" I said and slammed the door behind me. I quickly ran downstairs and picked up my tiny bag, taking out my money which had been given by my grandmother before she left me on her mission.

_I'm gonna celebrate it myself, alright! _I thought and quickly exited the house. Unknown to me, Sasori was looking toward where I was going from the window in his room. A smile was formed on his lips as he immediately thought of a brilliant idea to celebrate my birthday.

_She'll never going to suspect it._ He thought to himself

* * *

It was 6 pm already, and what made it worse was that it was raining outside in Sunagakure. I held the little box in my arms, protecting it from the rain, while attempting to run as fast as I can back into Sasori's house. Despite the rain that was pouring heavily on me, I couldn't help but to smile while holding the box tightly in my hands.

I finally arrived back at Sasori's house, my clothes were dripping wet from the rain. I went inside to find all the lights in the room were off.

"Sasori! What happen with the lamps?" I yelled out, hoping that Sasori would hear me. I slowly walked in the darkness, trying to find a light switch to turn the lamp back on, but suddenly, I felt something cold was grabbing onto my right leg. I squealed in surprise and immediately jumped away from it.

"Sasori! This isn't funny!" I yelled again, stomping my way toward the stairs. When I was walking upstairs, I heard a noise from behind me. I turned around and squinted my eyes a bit to get a better look at it. My eyes widened when I saw what it was.

A _**giant hairy monster**_!

"AAAAAA!" I screamed and ran upstairs in a speed of light. I stopped in front of Sasori's room and tried to turn the knob, only to find it locked up.

"SASORI! SASORI OPEN THE DOOR! THERE'S A MONSTER IN THE HOUSE!!!" I screamed while banging on the door like there was no tomorrow. The monster abruptly appeared behind me, which made me scream my lungs out and ran back to the stairs. I couldn't see things clearly because of the darkness, I just kept running until I arrived at the stairs. But when I was about to run down it, suddenly, I felt something heavy slammed against my back, which I assumed was the monster's hands. I immediately lost my balance and fell down from the stairs. I screamed while closing my eyes, slowly losing my grip on the box in my arms, as my body finally made contact with the hard floor on the base of the stairs.

'_**CRACK'**_

I felt an unbearable pain on your right leg; I couldn't handle it, and automatically closed my eyes. Before I knew it, the darkness had consumed me, and I passed out immediately from the painful impact with my eyes hanging half open.

* * *

**~Sasori's POV~**

I was holding my laughter while hiding near the staircase. I was controlling the new puppet that I made to scare poor Haruka out of her mind. I heard her calling my names over and over in despair, it only made me laugh even harder than before.

_She hasn't seen the best part just yet! _I thought as I was getting ready to surprise her again when she reached the staircase. I moved my fingers quickly, making the giant puppet shove Haruka hard on her back, which made her fall down the stairs with a thud. I laughed again before getting out from my hiding place to take a look at my terrified friend.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" I yelled from upstairs. "This is my surprise for your birthday party. Don't you like it?" I teased her in between my laughter.

I stopped laughing when I heard no reply from Haruka. I expected her to be mad at me and started yelling at me in rage, but I didn't even hear her move a bit.

"Haruka?" I called out her name while slowly walked downstairs. "You're not that mad at me, are you?"

I switched on the lamp beside me and my eyes widened when I saw Haruka's unconscious form was lying on the ground in front of me.

"HARUKA!" I screamed and quickly knelt down beside her. I carefully turned her body around so she was facing me right now. Her eyes were dull and half opened, tears were formed in the corner of her eyes, trickling down slowly on her pale cheeks. Her right leg was indeed broken; it went to the opposite way from where it should be facing.

"H-Haruka... I didn't mean to... I'm so sorry!" I said, wiping the tears off her face. "Please wake up!"

I checked her pulse, and sighed in relief when I found that it was still beating. Without another thought, I quickly put her on my back and carried her out of the room. I used my chakra strings to help tightening my grip on her, as I began running to the nearest hospital. It was still raining outside, but not as heavy as before. The streets were empty, and the ground was muddy, making it harder for me to run swiftly on it, but that didn't stop me from taking her to the hospital with me.

As soon as I got there, I quickly ran inside and headed to the first nurse that I saw. She looked at both me and Haruka, and she looked terrified.

"There's no time to explain! You've got to heal her!" I said while trying to hand Haruka to her. She nodded and carefully put Haruka down on the palanquin and took her into one of the patient rooms. I followed her from behind, but stopped when she told me to wait outside the room.

"I've told my friend to call the doctor here. Where are your parents, dear?" the nurse asked me as soon as she got out of the room.

"I... my grandmother is on a mission right now. She's gonna come back tomorrow." I explained, not wanting to tell her about my parents.

"Oh, very well then. You should go home and wait for my grandmother to come back. We will take good care of your friend here, no need to worry." She said, giving me a comforting smile.

"But..." I was about to protest when the other nurse came back with a neat looking man, which I knew was the doctor. He went inside the room where Haruka was, along with the other nurses that were previously standing with me outside. I wanted to check how Haruka was doing, but I knew that I wasn't allowed to. With a finale glance at the door, I sadly decided to walked back home.

* * *

I arrived back in my house; my clothes were wet from the rain before. I dragged my feet lazily toward the stairs, but I stopped when I saw something lying on the ground next to the staircase.

I knelt down and examined it, realizing that it was indeed a small birthday cake. But it was splattered all over the ground, along with the candle on it. I spotted a little card not too far from it, and decided to read it.

_**Happy belated Birthday, Sasori!**_

_**Hope you'll like the cake!**_

_**Love,**_

_**Haruka.**_

My eyes widened at this, but then I saw a tiny writing at the end of the note. I squinted my eyes to get a better view at it.

_**P. S. : Sorry if I was always soooo annoying to you... I just hope that you'd forgive me! And I hope we can be best friends forever!**_

I dropped the card from my hand as soon as I read the last sentence in the card. I wasn't expecting her to give me a gift on her special day. I thought that she only cared about _her_ birthday, but I realized that I was wrong. My arms fell limp on the each side of my body, as I stared down at the cake and card in regret.

She was planning to celebrate my birthday with her, but instead I scared her badly and ended up hurting her. What kind of friend am I? No, what kind of _person_ am I?

I slowly picked up the card from the ground and put it in my pocket, before proceeding on cleaning the cake that was scattered on the floor. I would definitely find a way to make up for all of this.

Definitely.


	4. The Apology & end of childhood

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*****

**Chapter IV**

**The Apology**

**~Third Person POV~**

Three days had passed since the accident afflicted in Akasuna's resident. Chiyo and Emmi were indeed shocked when they found out that Haruka had been taken to the hospital while they were gone on a mission 3 days ago. Sasori wouldn't even tell them what had happened to Haruka, he kept locking himself in his room all day, not wanting to talk to anybody including his own grandmother. He only ate when he felt like eating, and the lack of sleeping didn't help him much either. His grandmother began to worry about him, but there was nothing she could do to make the stubborn red-head to talk to her. She could only wait until the right time to ask him about it.

* * *

It was in the middle of the night. The village was already dark, every citizen of Suna had probably gone to sleep in each of their own houses, except for one little red-headed boy of course. Faint noises were heard from inside his room, resulting in waking the light-sleeper Chiyo up. She yawned tiredly and was about to go back to sleep before she heard another noise coming from his grandson's room. Standing up straight, she dragged her feet out of her room and toward Sasori's room that was located not too far from her own.

She couldn't help but to wonder, what could that boy possibly do in the middle of the night like this?

She turned on the knob on Sasori's door, surprisingly, it was left unlocked. She slowly the door open and took a peek inside. She saw her grandson was talking to a little girl, who looked extremely similar like Haruka. But wasn't she supposed to be in the hospital right now?

She took a better look at both Sasori and the girl, and then she realized that it was actually a puppet. She moved her hair behind her ears to hear what Sasori was saying to the puppet girl.

"I'm really sorry, Haruka. I didn't mean to hurt you, I only wanted to make a surprise for your birthday..." she heard him saying, which made her chuckled deeply.

Hearing a noise coming from behind him, Sasori quickly turned around. His grey orbs widened when he saw his grandmother was standing right outside his door, crossing her hands in font of her chest.

"C-Chiyo baa-sama! How long have you been there?" he asked, his face showed a hint of shock.

"Long enough." Chiyo replied before entering the room and closing the door behind her.

Sasori tried to hide the puppet in vain. He opened his mouth, ready to make some excuses, before Chiyo cut him up and said, "Sasori, if you want to apologize to Haruka, you should just tell her directly, not by telling a lifeless puppet that look similar to her." she smiled. "So you had been making that puppet since 3 days ago? That explains why you hadn't come out from your room as often as usual."

"Uh... I was just... Well..." Sasori stuttered, his face was now as red as his hair. "I figured that it would be better to practice apologizing at this puppet first before I tell it to the real Haruka..."

Chiyo laughed at this while ruffling her grandson's messy hair. "You silly boy... Don't worry, I'll take you to the hospital tomorrow to go and visit Haruka! That way you could apologize to her directly instead of saying sorry to this puppet over and over!" she said.

Sasori's face tensed up. "No, I can't! What if she doesn't forgive me? What if she-"

"Nonsense! I'm still taking you there whether you like it or not, and that's final."

Sasori sighed and nodded in defeat. His grandmother smiled proudly at her victory before walking out of the room.

"Night, Sasori." She said and turned off the lamp. She heard Sasori gave her a small reply, before she closed the door behind her and heading back to her own room to take a rest.

* * *

**Next Day**

**~Haruka's POV~**

I was sitting on my bed with eyes scanning the room in total boredom. I had been here for almost 4 days. I was sick of it and wanted to go home so badly. I looked up at my injured leg, suddenly remembered about the monster that had done this to me. My dreams were haunted by it, and I couldn't help but to wonder where Sasori was when the monster came to eat me inside his house.

I snapped out of my trance when I heard a soft knock on my door.

"Come in." I replied.

The door creaked open slowly, revealing a red-headed boy behind it. He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him; his eyes were staring at the floor below him.

"Sasori?" I called out his name. "What are you doing here? I didn't think you would give me a visit." I asked confusedly.

Sasori looked up at me as he tried to open his mouth to say something.

"I..."

He closed his mouth again, and turned his gaze back to the floor. I raised an eyebrow at him, feeling even more confused than I already was before.

"You... what?" I asked.

"I... Well I..." Sasori stuttered, still not managed to take the words out of his mouth. "I'm sorry... I did this to you."

"Nani??" I asked, trying to understand what he meant by that.

"The monster... it was actually my puppet. I was the one who controlled it." He continued.

My eyes widened, anger rising inside my tiny body. "WHAT?! Why did you do that to me? Did you want me to end up in the hospital like this?!" I yelled.

This time, it was Sasori's turn to be stunned by my action. "No! Of course not! I just thought that..."

"What? You want to make that day my worst birthday _ever_?! If you don't like me that much, you should've told me about it! Then I wouldn't have gone to your house _everyday_ just to annoy you when you'd rather be left alone!" I spat out at him.

"I didn't mean to hurt you! Honest! I just... wanted to make a surprise for your uncelebrated birthday..." he said the last words in a whisper. "If you don't believe me, then fine. But, to tell you the truth, I really enjoy your presence near me..." he trailed off.

I frowned at him, barely registering what he had just said with those intelligent words of his (which he found not so intelligent at all -.-; )

"Haven't you ever wondered _why_ my grandmother dropped you in my house almost _every_ day since the first day we met?" he asked. "That's because I always suggested Chiyo baa-sama to go out on a mission with my grandmother, so that you would have to stay in my house to hang out with me until they came back!"

I stared at his face in disbelief, but kept myself silent and listened to his explanations as he continued.

"Sure, you often annoyed me, but that's the joy of having you around. If you don't believe me, then it's fine. I came here to apologize, but it's okay if you don't forgive me." He said and walked closer to the side of my bed. "And I... uh... want to give this to you..." he took out a white rose from behind his back, and handed it to me shakily. He averted his gaze back to the ground; his face was now as red as his hair. "Happy belated birthday... Haruka."

My face brightened instantly, as I took the flower from his hand, I couldn't help but to suddenly jump and glomped the red-head tightly, completely ignoring my wounded leg. He gasped while stumbling back, trying to regain his balance, before wrapping his hands around me to prevent me from falling onto the floor.

"HONTOUNI ARIGATO, SASORI-KUUUUN!!!" I yelled while giving him a kiss on his cheek. I swore his face turned even redder than before, if that was even possible.

"L-let me go, Haruka! You're too heavy for me! Get off!" he yelled, embarrassed of my sudden action. I didn't comply with his order; instead I hugged him even tighter than before, planting other soft pecks on each side of his flushed cheeks.

Unknown to both of us, the old women were watching us from outside the door. They exchanged giggles before deciding to leave both of us alone.

"You know what, Emmi?" Chiyo asked, looking at her friend's smiling face. "This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Or maybe, a beautiful _relationship_." Emmi added before sharing weird laughter together with her best friend.

_~End of Sasori and Haruka's Childhood~ _

_

* * *

_

Phew, I guess that's that! ^_^ Don't worry, this isn't the last chapter ! This is only the beginning of this awesome story! *gets hit by a tomato thrown by a random granny on the street* HEY, WATCH IT, GRANDMA! I WAS ONLY TELLING THE TRUTH! tee-hee... ^_~

The next story will take place 10 years after this chapter. Oh, and before you all get confused, this fanfic has _nothing_ to do with the akatsuki and stuffs like that. It's 100% fan_fiction_. ^-^

Well then, please review if you have time. I'm not forcing you to do it, don't worry! I write for fun, after all ^^

Ja ne!


	5. The Exploratory

**Disclaimer :** **I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter 5**

**The Exploratory**

_Tick, tock, tick, tock._

A faint sound of a ticking noise of the clock was heard in the middle of the classroom. The only sound which was noticeable other than the explanations from the teacher.

_Tick, tock, tick, tock_

I listened to the sound of it. It grew louder and louder every second, every minute, resulting in deafening my ears. The teacher's voice decreased gradually, until it slowly ceased along with the raised sound of the ticking clock.

_Tick, tock, tick, tock_

"Haruka..."

_Tick, tock, tick, tock_

"Haruka..."

_Tick, tock, tick, tock_

"SHOKUBUTSU NO HARUKA!"

I snapped out of my trance in instance, the ticking noise immediately vanished from my previously deafened ears. Turning my gaze back to the front of the class, my face tensed up when I saw my teacher was glaring daggers down at me.

"Haruka, you should pay attention to the lesson, instead of the clock." He said.

"Gomen ne, Satoshi-sensei..." I murmured quietly, avoiding his gaze.

He exhaled deeply before turning his attention back to the other students. "Well then, can any of you tell me more about the history of your clan?" he asked.

One of the students raised his hand, no, both of his hands high in the air. The teacher looked at the other students, hoping that one of them would raise their hand instead of the hyperactive boy who was waving his hands over and over in order to gain the teacher's attention. Satoshi shook his head slowly when none of them did, and glanced back at the over-excited boy who sat in the very front row of the class. "Yes... Kimi?"

"KIMI RAIKKICHI!" the boy corrected.

"Hai, hai... Kimi Raikkichi..." the teacher sighed, attempting to regain his composure.

The boy lowered his hand and smiled brightly at the teacher. "Kimi Raikkichi has a plan, how about Haruka-chan tells us more about her clan!" he chattered happily, making the whole class stared at me in a waiting manner.

"..." I opened my mouth to say something, but didn't manage to get anything out from it. After all, I didn't know a single thing about my clan.

I prayed for the bell to ring, so I could escape from the damned room as soon as I can. But I didn't dare to look at the clock, since I knew it was still 30 minutes away until the bell would finally ring.

Suddenly, the red-headed puppeteer raised his hand, making all the students and the teacher turned their attentions to him

"I believe Satoshi-sensei has chosen you to tell us about your clan, Raikkichi." He stated plainly.

"KIMI RAIKKICHI!!!" the idiotic boy yelled in response.

"Oh, so sorry about that, Raikkichi..." the red-head said, emphasizing the last word tauntingly.

The class burst out laughing, hearing what Sasori just said. Even the teacher chuckled quietly, attempting to hide it with a cough in vain. I swore that Kimi's f- er... Kimi Raikkichi's face was now bright red, caused by the anger that he held inside his empty head.

"Okay, settle down, class." Satoshi sensei ordered. "Let me just tell you more about my clan then." He continued as the class turned silent again.

He began explaining while the whole class listened to him. I turned to Sasori, who sat in the second row next to me, and muttered a small 'thankyou.' He nodded in return, before both of us decided to pay our attentions back to the teacher's interesting story.

*****

I was sitting under the giant maple tree, which was located in the center of Sunagakure. I didn't know why, but I had always liked hanging around this huge tree since I was little. As I stared up at the sky above me, I couldn't help but to let my mind wander back about my clan.

I looked up when I felt a familiar presence next to me, only to see Sasori staring down at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked in a rather 'rude' tone.

"Is it necessary to talk like that to the person who had saved your back at the class?" the red head smirked.

"Nooo... but I think it's necessary to talk like that to the person whom I have known for 9 years-"

"Ten."

I rolled my eyes when he corrected me. "Okay... ten years," I sweat-dropped. "So what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be making puppets or something?"

"No, I did that yesterday," He replied as he took a seat next to me. "Besides... I thought I would find you here, goofing around like always."

"Aw... I didn't know you missed me that much, Saso-kun!" I said, ruffling his red locks with my hand.

He scoffed. "No, I don't miss you. I just don't have anything else better to do, and you usually come out with some crazy ideas to end this boredom." He said, pushing my hand away from his head.

I just laughed a little, but then I turned quiet as I stared at the deserted street in front of me. I leaned my head on Sasori's right shoulder, slightly resting on it. He didn't seem to mind, after all, I had always been closed to him since we both were little.

"Hey Sasori."

"Hm?"

"Do you happen to know anything about my clan?" I asked, looking up at him.

He stared back down at me. His cheeks turned a bit pink when he noticed how close he was to my face, but quickly looked away before I could notice it. "What if I do?" he asked back.

"Then you should tell me."

"What if I don't want to?"

I pulled away from his shoulder and scowled at him. "I'm serious, Sasori! You've got to tell me! I really want to know about my clan! My family! Everything!" I exclaimed.

"You should ask your grandmother."

"I did! But she always changed the topic every time I asked her about it!"

Sasori sighed and looked away from me. When he spotted a red maple leaf landing on his lap, he picked it up and placed it in my palm. He closed it with his own, and when I opened it, the leaf had already transformed into a small branch.

"You should know what clan you are from by your ability to control plants," Sasori said. "And obviously, by your last name, and also the name that had been craved on this tree."

"Nani?" I stood up and turned around to look at the trunk of the tree where I had previously rested my back on. There was indeed something written on it. I dusted it with my palm to reveal a familiar name craved on it.

Shokubutsu no Haruka

"THAT'S MY NAME!" I screamed in astonishment, making the red-head cringed at my sudden action. "Look, Sasori! Someone has written my name on this tree! Maybe it's my secret admirer..." I said, batting my eyelashes at Sasori as I whispered the last sentence.

Sasori sighed heavily while shaking his head at me. "It's not written by someone, and it's definitely not written by your 'secret-admirer'." he said, making me pouted in response. "It has been there since the first time you made this tree."

I tilted my head at him, feeling more confused than ever. "Since the first time I what?"

The puppeteer sighed as he stood up from the ground. "Just ask Emmi baa-sama. I'm going home." He said, walking away from me.

"Choto matte kudasai, Sasori! I'm not finished yet!!" I yelled after him, but he only ignored me and kept on walking. "Jerk." I muttered to myself. Taking one last look at the craving on the tree, I finally turned on my heel and decided to walk back home myself.

*****

The 65-years-old Emmi was, once again, sitting in the dining room, taking another sip of her warm cup of tea in her hand, and a book about gardening in her other one, when suddenly; a familiar screaming was heard from the front door. It almost made her choke on her drink. Almost.

"EMMI BAA-SAMAAAAA!" I screamed my lungs out as I arrived back in my house.

Sighing, the old woman placed the cup back on the table and waited as her granddaughter stormed inside the dining room, stopping right in front of her face. "What is it now, Haruka?"

I frowned at her and slammed my fists on the table in front of both of us. "Obaa-sama! You've got to tell me about our clan! NOW!" I yelled.

"Oh, I think I left the stove on. Let me turn it off first-"

"Nice try, obaa-sama." I cut her off, blocking her way to the stove. "Quit changing the subject! I need to know, Obaa-sama! Onegai!" I begged, staring at her right in the eyes.

Giving up, my grandmother exhaled deeply before finally taking a sit back on the previous chair. "Sit down, dear."

I complied and took a seat right in front of her. She looked like she was in a deep thought for a while. She finally opened her mouth to speak after what seemed like an eternity.

"It all started when the Shokubutsu clan was still living in Hayashigakure..."

* * *

That's all for now. Thanks for reading! Oh, and here's some info about the words used in this chapter.

**Chotto matte kudasai : **Wait a minute

**Onegai :** Please

**Hayashigakure : **Village hidden in the forest

I forgot to tell you what Shokubutsu means. It means 'plant', so that makes Shokubutsu no Haruka = Haruka of the plants ^^; (I don't know if that's a proper Japanese... but oh well!)

I'm not forcing you to review this story, but if you do, it will definitely get my writing spirit up! ^_^ I'm busy with school stuffs right now, and what's more, I'm grounded, so I can't really use my laptop at the moment... *cries in despair* but don't worry! I won't stop writing this story!! I still have my computer, and I can publish more chapters on my holiday! ^O^

Ja ne!


	6. The History

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter 6**

**The History**

It was a very bright and clear day in Hayashigakure. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, even the plants seemed to be dancing. The cool breeze blew swiftly through the damp forest of the village, making one of the green leafs on the tree fell prematurely from it, landing softly on the gray head of a rabbit which was sleeping right below it. It twitched awake and reflexively ran to the direction of the village.

A young woman who was sitting at the porch of the house, gazed at the small rabbit which was running toward her direction. She extended her arms and caught the bunny as soon as it collided with the palm of her hands.

She pulled the rabbit gently onto her lap and stroked the back of its long ears, slightly ticking it. "I've been looking allover for you, Usagi-chan." She spoke softly.

The rabbit's quivering slowly ceased as it finally regained its composure. The cuddly looking creature stared up at the woman and opened its mouth in order to answer her. "I-I was just taking a nap in the forest, when something poked me on the head all of the sudden and woke me up from my dreamless sleep! I was shocked, I thought it was a monster which was planning to eat me! So I ran back here as fast as I could so I'd be safe instead of being eaten, then I saw you sitting here, so I decided to tell you about what had happened! But fortunately, you had beaten me to it, so I just told you that I happened to be sleeping in the forest when suddenly-"

"Alright, alright, I get it. No need to tell the story twice." The woman replied while chuckling down at the paranoid rabbit. "Besides, you wouldn't want to scare the baby with your terrifying story, would you, Usagi-chan?"

Hearing this, Usagi's long ears immediately perked up. He rubbed the woman's temple with his chubby cheek, hoping to calm the baby down. "Gomen ne, Sayuri-san's baby! I didn't mean to frighten you with my frightening experience!" Usagi apologized.

Sayuri chuckled again in response while rubbing Usagi's back as a sign of appreciation. "Don't worry, Usagi-chan. I'm sure she's already forgive you."

Once again, Usagi's ears perked up while turning his gaze at the pregnant mother in front of him. "The baby is a _**she**_?"

"Hai, the doctor said that it's a girl." Sayuri answered. "I can't wait until her birth."

"Neither can I." The rabbit said and rested his head on Sayuri's lap.

* * *

Darkness began to consume the sky as night time had finally arrived. The only source of light that was visible in the village hidden in the forest was from the tall lamppost in the central of the village. Nothing could be seen in the empty streets. The villagers were all sleeping soundly in each of their own houses.

A faint snoring sound was heard from inside Sayuri's house, making poor Usagi, who was sleeping right outside the house, covered his ears with his hands, attempting to prevent the sound from disturbing his beauty sleep. Seeing that his attempt was a vain, he got up from the spot where he had been lying on and went to find another place to rest for the night.

He trotted down the sidewalk slowly, using his instinct to observe his dark surroundings. He halted as soon as he arrived at the central of the village, right in front of the tall lamppost. He lied down below it and closed his eyes slowly, facing the unconsciousness taking his tired body and mind completely. When he was about to fall into a deep slumber, suddenly, the sound of running footsteps was heard in a distance, making him wake up abruptly and perked his ears up. The footsteps were coming closer and closer. Usagi could clearly sense whose footsteps were those belong to. His rabbit ears were trained to identified the agile steps of these certain nins.

_The Hinote Clan...!_

With his great speed and the powerful strength of his wide feet, he leaped toward where Sayuri lived. He was lucky for being a rabbit, since the pads on the palm of his feet helped abating the noise which he was making. Everything around him went blurry as he leaped his way to Sayuri's house.

_I just hope I'm not too late..._

* * *

Sayuri was sleeping complacently on her comfy bed, with her snoring husband next to her. She didn't seem to be bothered by his husband's loud snore, she was used to it after all. She then felt something was waddling her shoulder, making her eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Sayuri-san! Sayuri-san, wake up!"

The sleepy woman turned to her left and saw the familiar fluffy creature was right in front of her face. "Usagi-chan?" she called out tiredly. "Is there something wrong?"

The rabbit bounced on the bed where the couple was sleeping, waking the snoring husband up in instance. The man sat up; aghast, glancing abruptly toward his right and left, reflexively getting his guard up for any trouble near by.

"What? What is it? What's going on?" he asked in a rush.

"T-The Hinote Clan! They're here!" Usagi answered while panting a bit.

"Nani?!" Tasuki yelled rather than asking. "What the hell are they doing in our village?"

"I-I'm not sure, but I think they don't come here for a friendly visit." The frightened bunny replied. "I heard their footsteps coming in a very fast pace."

"I guess they want another war." Tasuki stated. "They know they wouldn't win against us if they didn't use their dirty tactics."

Sayuri sat up on the bed, holding her stomach which had the baby in it protectively. "What are we going to do now, Tasuki?" she asked.

Tasuki remained silent for a while. His face lit up a bit when an idea appeared inside his mind. He bit his right thumb ripping his skin lightly, causing it to bleed for a bit. He slammed his palm onto the floor and quickly chanted a jutsu,

"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"

A large amount of smoke appeared in the room, followed by the appearance of a giant rabbit. His eyes were bloody red and the fur was pitch black, making him looked even darker than the night which was cladding him.

He stared down at Tasuki and his wife, and surprisingly, bowed his head down in respect. "Tasuki-san. Sayuri-san."

"Sorry for calling you here in the middle of the night, Chiifu." Tasuki grinned as he said his nickname for the giant creature.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?" the black rabbit sighed. "Back to the topic, then. "What's the problem?"

"It's the Hinote Clan, Yato-sama! They're on their way here to start a dirty war!" Usagi answered, bouncing his way to the leader of the pack.

Yato's face tensed up at the aforementioned name of the clan. "The Hinote Clan...?"

Tasuki nodded. "Hai. I have to go and inform the other villagers about this. Meanwhile, can you take my wife to a safe place, Chiifu?" he asked.

Yato's gaze fell upon Sayuri's worried expression. He smiled reassuringly at her and bent his body toward her, allowing Tasuki to help her getting on his head. As soon as she was in position, Yato stood upright and turned to the door.

"Keep her safe from any harm!" Tasuki reminded.

The black rabbit grinned in response. "You know I will."

With that, he took a giant leap outside, not to mention breaking the wall in progress. Tsuki sweatdropped, he had to remember fixing his house next time.

He then turned to the little Usagi who was standing next to his legs. "Usagi?"

The rabbit suddenly jumped in surprise, not expecting to hear anything after the departure of Sayuri and his giant leader. "H-hai, Tasuki-san?"

"Can you get Sayuri's mother out of this village also?" Takumi asked. "This war is about to start, and I don't want her to get involved."

Usagi nodded slowly before heading toward the door and finally leaped outside in a very swift motion. He could sense Takumi's departure as soon as he stepped out of the house, and toward the house of the eldest woman in the village,

_Shokubutsu no Emmi._

* * *

**~Back to the present time~**

"So you're telling me that you've been saved by a talking rabbit while everyone else was killed in a war?" Haruka asked bluntly.

"Ssh! I'm not finished yet!" her grandmother hushed, keeping her silent as the story continued. "Hmm... where was I...? Oh yes! So Usagi came to my house in order to save me from the war..."

* * *

**~Flashback~**

The 50 years old Emmi was sleeping peacefully on her bed, dreaming of having a honeymoon with her (dead) husband in a Village Hidden in Paradise. Oh, how wonderful that dream was, having a candle light dinner with the love of her life, before finally heading to a king-size bed together, turning off the lights and getting under the bed cover while taking the rest of her clothes off...

* * *

"**OBAA-SAMA**!" Haruka yelled out, her face showed a mix of embarrassment and disgust. "I want to hear the history of our clan, _**not** _ the rest of your pervy dream!"

Emmi laughed loudly at her granddaughter's remark. "Oh, but you _should_ listen to the rest of it, dear. You and Sasori are going to do it sooner or later anyhow!"

Haruka's face flushed deeply when she heard what her grandmother had said. "O-OBAA-SAMA! You really need to clean up your mind!" she yelled frustratedly, getting up from her seat and headed to the front door. "You can tell me the rest of the story later... I think I need to get some fresh air..."

She opened the front door only to come face to face with the startled puppet master. She quickly jumped back, her face turned into different shades of red, remembering what her grandmother had said about her and Sasori.

"Sasori! What a coincidence!" Emmi exclaimed happily, popping eh head out from behind her granddaughter's back. "We were just talking about you and Haruka getting under the-"

"**TREE**!" Haruka screamed while covering her grandmother's mouth with her hand, keeping the pervy woman from saying the dirty stuffs any further. "Yes, getting under the tree! Which is what we are about to do right now! Ja ne, Obaa-sama!" she said, pushing Sasori outside with her and slammed the door behind them.

_Phew, that was close... _she thought.

"What was that all about? The red-head asked, raising his eyebrow at his friend.

"Oh, nothing! Nothing at all!" Haruka lied while laughing nervously at the curious puppeteer. "So, what were you doing in front of my house anyway?"

Sasori gave her a suspicious stare at first, but finally decided to shrug it off. "Chiyo baa-sama is visiting her friend and won't be back until tomorrow."

"So?"

Sasori rolled his eyes at his extremely dense friend. "So, I was wondering if you could come over to my house and help me with dinner."

"You still haven't learned how to cook, have you?" the brunette asked, earning no answer in response. She sighed heavily at the stubborn puppeteer. "Alright, I'll help you."

Sasori smiled lightly at her, making her blush a bit, but went unnoticed to him. "Good, let's go then." He said as both of them began walking toward his house. "You know, if you keep this up, I'm sure you'll make a good wife someday."

Haruka almost nosebleed hearing what Sasori just said. "Gah! Damn you, Emmi baa-sama!" she cursed under her breath, minds wandering back to the story of her grandmother's pervy dream.

* * *

Well, that's all for now. I typed this one in a speed of light -.-; so forgive me if there is any spelling mistakes!

Again, here's some info about the words used in this chapter.

**Usagi : **Rabbit

**Yato : **Wild Rabbit**  
**

**Chiifu : **Chief

Well, thanks for anyone who's reading and reviewing this story! ^_^

Ja ne!


	7. The New Team

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter 7**

**The New Team**

**~Next Day (Haruka's POV)~**

"Today, I will divide you into three-man cells. Each of which will be mentored by a Jonin, a more senior ninja, who will guide and coach you as you become familiar with my various assignments." The teacher amplified in front of the class.

I was bored out of my mind, like always. Some of the students were excited to find out who would their teammates be, some of them were just as bored as I am. The teacher had arranged the team members based on their grades in class. My grades were just average, meaning that I could either be paired up with a smart kid or a dumb one.

Satoshi – sensei began calling out some names. I counted the numbers of students who had been put into groups by my teacher. Twenty one names have been checked on the list, except mine, Sasori's, and one last student's whom I cared-less of.

Oh joy, I'm gonna be in the same team as Sasori... I thought inside my mind. I didn't really mind having him in my team, though. The only thing that was bothering me was the unknown last member of my team. Who was it gonna be?

"Next, cell number eight." Satoshi-sensei announced, clearing up his throat before continuing. "Akasuna no Sasori, Shokubutsu no Haruka..."

I gulped slightly, waiting for the next name that was going to be called.

"... and Kimi Raikkichi."

The bustling class suddenly turned silent as the bright atmosphere began to change into a dark one. The students' gazes immediately fell on me and Sasori, who were both gaping at the last name of the member on my team which had been declared by my teacher. The tense ambiance was suddenly broken by the cheering Kimi Raikkichi, who immediately ran up to me and hugged me tightly in the middle of nowhere. "Yay! Kimi Raikkichi and Haruka-chan are now teammates!"

I was still busy jaw-dropping at the moment, I didn't notice that Sasori was glaring daggers at the boy who was glomping me. The red-head suddenly stood up and slammed his hands onto the desk in process. "Satoshi-sensei."

The teacher looked up from his list and toward Sasori's angry face. "Yes, Sasori?"

"I can't assimilate why you have to put me in the same team as him." Sasori stated coldly, emphasizing the word 'him' at the end of the sentence.

The teacher scratched his cheek nervously while grinning at the puppeteer. "Well, as you can see, Sasori, you have the best grades in class, while Kimi's gra-"

"KIMI **RAIKKICHI**!" the childish boy corrected loudly, still hugging onto the stunned me.

"Hai, hai, Kimi _Raikkichi_!" Satoshi exhaled deeply, trying to regain his composure. "Anyway, Kimi Raikkichi's grades are probably the worst in the class. I need to balance my different strengths, that's why I put you both together in the same team."

Sasori didn't seem to buy the explanations. "Are you trying to flatter me, sensei?" he asked blatantly. The teacher was about to answer, but the red-head cut him off. "Even if you do, I don't see why you have to put Haruka in the same team as ours."

Satoshi sweatdropped at his stubborn pupil. "Obviously, I need her to stop you two from killing each other, isn't that right, Haruka?" he asked while glancing at me.

I was still too shocked to even say anything, so I only nodded my head as an answer.

"Aw... Haruka-chan is too happy, Satoshi-sensei! She can't even say anything to express it!" Kimi Raikkichi said, staring at my gaping face. "Kimi Raikkichi is happy to be with Haruka-chan too!" he exclaimed and kissed my right cheek. My eyes widened at the sudden contact, but I couldn't control the heat that was rising up to my face. Despite his brain problems, Kimi Raikkichi was still a total cutie, after all.

The whole class gasped at the sight of me being kissed by the hyperactive boy. Everyone except the angy Sasori, whose eyes had almost fallen out of his sockets. "**THAT'S IT**!" the puppeteer yelled out loud. His face was almost as red as his hair, infuriated by what Kimi Raikkichi just did to oblivious me. He jumped to my seat and tackled the blonde onto the ground, ready to punch him square on the face.

I immediately snapped out of my trance as soon as Sasori leap himself onto the poor Kimi Raikkichi. "YAMETE, SASORI!" I yelled while catching Sasori's striking fist with both of my hands, stopping him from pulling the gut out of Kimi Raikkichi's body.

"Sasori! Kimi Raikkichi!" Satoshi called out loudly, turning everyone's attention back to him, except for Sasori and Kimi Raikkichi's of course. "If you keep this up, none of you will be trained by the jonin this afternoon! And I will give you both detentions!"

Sasori still didn't move and neither did Kimi Raikkichi. They were busy glaring at each other, with Sasori still sitting ontop of the blonde.

"Yamete Kudasai, Sasori..." I whispered the sentence out, since I knew yelling at my childhood friend would not do me any good.

With a final glare at the blonde, Sasori stood back up and went back to his seat. Satoshi exhaled in relief and smiled thankfully at me, while I only nodded in return. "Okay, so we have 8 teams in total. The jonins will be here after school, and my test will start afterward." he informed before the bell finally rang, giving the students sighs of reliefs as they were finally free from the previously strained atmosphere. "Class dismissed."

* * *

The classroom was already empty. The other teams had left off with their jonins, leaving me, Sasori, and Kimi Raikkichi sitting tediously on each of my own seats. I had no idea what was taking our jonin so long to arrive at the class. I could tell that Sasori was extremely pissed off, since waiting is one thing that he hated the most.

I glanced at the red-head, who was staring off into space, then to Kimi Raikkichi who was busy paying attention to the clock on the wall. I sighed before putting my face in my palms desperately. This team is going to be sooooo miserable...

I then heard someone taking a seat next to me, and I saw that it was Kimi Raikkichi. "Hey there Kimi... er, I mean, Kimi Raikkichi..." I corrected myself with a sweat drop.

"It's okay if Haruka-chan wants to call Kimi Raikkichi that..." the blonde said, fidgeting a bit. "Kimi Raikkichi doesn't mind."

I raised my eyebrow at him before smiling hesitantly. "Oh, okay then. Kimi it is." I uttered, earning an unnoticeable glare from the puppeteer.

Kimi Raikkichi suddenly took my hands in his own and grinned widely at me. "Kimi Raikkichi is very happy to be in the same team as Haruka-chan! Is Haruka-chan happy to be in the same team as Kimi Raikkichi?" he asked hopefully.

I looked at his face and thought to myself. I got a special permission to call him by his first name only, and he told me that he was happy to be in the same team as mine. Even my lovely childhood friend hadn't expressed his happiness of being federated with me. _Maybe being in the same team as him isn't so bad after all..._

I was about to answer, but suddenly, the red-head yanked me out of Kimi's grip by my arm, and dragged me over to his own seat. Kimi Raikkichi puffed his cheeks angrily while Sasori only continued to glare at him.

"Geez, what's got into you all of the sudden?" I asked, rubbing my sore arm as soon as he released his firm grip on me.

Sasori stopped glaring at the boy and looked at me. "You shouldn't get near him, you'll catch some of his harebrained disease."

I looked at his angry face and giggled, making him stared down at me in confusion. "What's so funny?"

I stopped giggling and ruffled his red locks. "Oh nothing... nothing at all... except for the fact that you are totally JEALOUS!" I laughed at him.

Sasori's face flushed with anger and embarassment, despite the fact that I was just trying to lighten up the tense atmosphere with one of my silly jokes. Seriously, Akasuna no Sasori? Jealous? That didn't even come across my mind, but making fun of him did for sure.

"I am not jealous!" he snapped at me, standing up from his seat.

"Yeah, right..." I sneered.

Sasori suddenly banged his fist on the table, making me jolted on my seat in surprise. "Whoa, relax, Sasori! I was just kidding!" I defended myself, finally able to stop my laughing fit.

Sasori didn't listen to me. He moved out from his chair and walked his way out of the room. "Whatever, I'm out of here."

"Matte, Sasori!" I called out, running after him outside the classroom's door. I took a hold of his arm and tried to pull him back with me. "We still have to wait for our jonin!"

"I don't give a damn about our Jonin! I don't want to waste my time waiting for a person who's one hour late!" Sasori spat, pulling his arm away from my grip.

Kimi Raikkichi suddenly ran up to my side and grabbed my right arm, stopping me from pulling the red-head back to me. "Haruka-chan, just let this stupid red-head go! He's a burden to our team!"

Seeing that the blonde had once again invaded my personal space, Sasori quickly grabbed my other arm and pulled my body toward him. "How many times do I have to tell you to GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER?"

"NO!" Kimi Raikkichi yelled, yanking me back at him. "Haruka-chan wants to be with Kimi Raikkichi, not with Akasuna no Baka!"

The boys kept quarreling while drawing me by each of my arms toward their sides. I tried to tell them to stop pulling me around, but no avail. They were acting like children who weren't wiling to share their toy with one-another.

"Well, well... what do we have here?" came a gentle voice from behind me, making the three of us stopped what we were doing in reflex.

The owner of the voice walked in front of the three of us. He was a tall man with short black spiky hair and soft looking black eyes. He wore the same uniform as my teacher's. A hint of interest was plastered on his face.

"When my teacher told me that there's a certain problem in this team, he didn't say that it was a love triangle !" the man laughed.

Kimi Raikkichi suddenly let go of me, making me fell into Sasori's strong arms instead. "Our Jonin is here!" said the happy blonde, running over to the Jonin's side.

Sasori abruptly released his grip on me, making my unbalanced body fell on the ground with a thud. "Ouch! That hurts, baka!" I cursed, rubbing my butt.

He only smirked at my reaction, making me pouted angrily at him. The Jonin gazed at me, then at Sasori, then at Kimi Raikkichi who was already standing beside him.

"Now now, before the three of you continue to fight for my love affair, let's just start by introducing ourselves outside, shall we?" the jonin suggested, smiling warmly at the three of us.

"Yay! Kimi Raikkichi loves introductions! Kimi Raikkichi bets Jonin-sensei wants to know what Kimi Raikkichi's name is!" the blonde exclaimed happily, not realizing that he had already mentioned his full name in every sentence that he said.

The jonin sweatdropped, before leading my team outside to begin my introductions, along with my test of becoming his official pupils.

* * *

That's all for now. Was it short? Sorry if it was, I had a hard time publishing this one, since the exams are near, and I need to focus more on my studying. Darn.

Leave a review if you have time! (Thanks for everyone who has left some, I really appreciate it. ^^)

Oh! And here's a picture of Kimi Raikkichi that I've drawn : http:// raffee28. deviantart. com/art/Kimi-Raikkichi-122067438 (delete the spaces when you copy-paste the link on the web browser)

Isn't he adorable? ^O^ I know I'm not a very good artist, but I tried my best to draw him, and I'm glad it turned out fine =)

**Word Info :**

**Yamete :** Stop!

**Yamete Kudasai :** Please stop

*********

Another thing, I decided to correlate this Sasori story to the real one in Naruto! =D I've got some ideas for it, but I haven't written them down yet. Just wait for it!

Well then, Ja ne!


	8. The Test

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

*********

**Chapter 8**

**The Test**

**~Haruka's POV~**

The unknown Jonin had led me and my teammates outside the Sunagakure and toward the desert located in the middle of nowhere. We had been walking for half an hour; I had no idea where nor when was he planning to stop. When he told my team to introduce ourselves outside, he didn't mention about going [outside the village!

"Where are you planning on leading us, sensei?" Sasori asked in a bored tone, upon realizing that there was nothing else insight apart from the desert and the blinding ray which was radiating from the sun.

"Just keep on walking." The jonin replied, not even taking a glance back at the peevish red-head.

Kimi Raikkichi was surprisingly quiet during our promenade. I assumed he was a bit tired of the long walk, then again, maybe he was just too busy staring at the Jonin's hitai-ate, which had been worn backwardly.

Some distrustful thoughts began to form in my clouded mind. What if the guy wasn't really a Jonin? What if he was actually a highly trained evil ninja in disguise, who was planning to trap the three of us in the middle of the desert so we wouldn't be able to meet our real Jonin? Or worst... what if...

"Here we are." The Jonin stated, snapping me out of my paranoid trance. I looked at my right and left, expecting to see a training ground around me, only to find the same desert insight.

"And where exactly are we...?" the red-head asked, raising one of his eyebrows in confusion.

"Nowhere," The man replied calmly, smiling down at the three of us. "Now, let's begin the introduction. Tell me my names, hobbies, etc. Etc., anything that could be considered as a proper identification." He explained rather lazily.

The happy blonde immediately raised his hand, wanting to start a long amplification of himself, but I cut him off since I couldn't control the suspicious thoughts about the jonin that were trooping inside of me. "I haven't even introduced myself to us, sensei! We want to know my name first!" I inquired while raising my hand.

"Whoa, no can do, kiddo. Because **_that_** is actually a part of the test which I'm about to give you today," The Jonin said, earning weird stares from the three of us. He reached for his pocket in his black trousers and took out a brown wallet from it. "There's my identity card in here. So if you want to complete the test, I'll have to be able to take this wallet from me."

My eyes were glued to the wallet of his as he stuffed it back inside his invisible pocket. "Okay, so when do we start this test?" I asked.

The jonin glanced at his watch, then gazed back at the three of us. "Hmm... it's almost two o'clock. So we'll start right about... Now." As he spoke the last word out, thick smog of sand suddenly appeared from the ground beneath him, rising upward and covered his tall figure in a second. I closed my eyes a bit, trying to keep the sand out of my eyes. But as soon as I opened them, the man was gone.

"Where did Jonin-sensei go??" Kimi Raikkicihi asked, scanning the area frantically as soon as the smog had vanished into thin air.

I didn't give an answer since I was fairly panicked myself. There was no way someone could hide in a plain desert like this, or so I thought.

Meanwhile, the red-head had already taken out a scroll from his bag of weapons. He opened the scroll in his hand and summoned one of his armed puppets. It had a black lion-like hair, 3 eyes, and detachable limbs. I immediately recognized it as soon as it was summoned by the Ing puppet-master.

"SASORI! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE STILL KEEPING THAT.... that... UGLY HAIRY MONSTER!!" I yelled, pointing my index finger at him. Yes, that puppet was the monster which Sasori had used to prank me when I was still little _**(read chapter 3)**_.

Sasori smirked, seeing my reaction. "It's not an ugly monster, and its name is 'Karasu'." He replied calmly, attaching his chakra strings onto the puppet's body.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever..." I rolled my eyes at him, not wanting to continue the conversation any further, since I still had a test to be done. I observed to my right, then to my left. No sign of the Jonin anywhere. I wanted to search for him in the sky above me, but I was afraid that my eyes might be blinded by the sun's blinding light.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt a handful of sand suddenly struck me on the back of my head. "Hey!" I yelled, turning around to see the red-head was making his puppet dig a giant hole on the ground. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Searching for the damn Jonin," He replied, not even looking at me. "The only place he could be hiding right now is underground. So start digging."

Nodding, I knelt down on the ground and started digging the sand with my bare hands, but I felt them burn right after I took my first dig. "Argh!! Too hot! My hands are burning!!!" I cursed, blowing on my hands to make it cooler.

Kimi Raikkichi rushed to my side and looked at me worriedly. "Is Haruka-chan alright?" he asked, taking my hands in his. I nodded and smiled reassuringly at him. The blonde then stood up and turned around so his back was now facing me. "Haruka-chan better step back." He said. "AKA-NO-BAKA! STOP DIGGING AND GET OVER HERE!!"

I jumped a little, hearing the volume of his voice, and Sasori had also stopped digging and glared at the blonde who was standing next to me. "AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND, RAIKKICIHI?! IF YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A PLAN, THEN DON'T BOTHER DISTURBING MY WORK!" he yelled back outloud due to the distance between him and the blonde.

"KIMI-RAIKKICIHI _**DOES**_ HAVE A PLAN! TRUST ME, AKA-NO-BAKA!! GET OVER HERE, QUICK!"

The red-head seemed to doubt him a bit, since he still had his chakra strings attached to the hairy puppet. But knowing that the stubborn idiot wouldn't stop bothering him if he didn't comply with the idiot's suggestions, he soon pulled Karasu back onto his back and ran over toward me and the blonde.

"You better be quick, whatever your plan is." Sasori growled under his breath.

Kimi Raikkichi turned at him and grinned. "Hai! Kimi Raikkichi will make it EXTREEEEMEEEEEELY quick! Quicker than the speed of light!" he exclaimed, running toward the hole which Sasori had been digging.

Then, to my surprise, Kimi Raikkichi started running around the hole in circle, getting faster and faster every second, till my eyes couldn't follow his quick movement any longer. He was running in an inhuman speed, making both me and Sasori gaped in shock.

"What clan was he from, again?" I asked the red-head, still not getting my gaze off the blonde's pace.

"I don't know... what was his last name again...?" he asked back rather than answering, his mind was still as blank as mine.

Soon, thick smog of sand began to form around the track where the blonde was running. It increased abruptly as Kimi Raikkichi sped up more and more each second, making the sands spread in the air in a flash, blocking mine and Sasori's view from my running teammate.

"KIMI!" I yelled while getting up from the ground. Sasori seemed to be able to read my mind, as he put an arm in front of me, preventing me from running forward to the thick smog.

Minutes had passed, and the amount of smog seemed to be decreasing gradually. I assumed the blonde had stopped moving, since the smog of sands slowly disappeared into the air, giving me a view of what had happened in front of me. My eyes widened when I saw the hole that Sasori made, had turned 3 times bigger than the previous one. Both me and Sasori quickly ran over to it, looking down at the bottom of the hole to find a smiling Kimi Raikkichi staring up at me, with the familiar black-haired man right under him.

"Kimi Raikkichi found Jonin-sensei! YAY!" he yelled happily while waving his hands at me.

The poor man was being sat on by the blonde, sighing deeply as he rested his chin on the back of his hands. "Congrats, Kid. I can't believe you've actually caught me," He surrendered, raising his hands in front of his face. "Well, my shadow clone, that is."

"Hee? Nani??" Kimi Raikkichi asked in surprise as the shadow clone below him puffed into smokes, making him fall on the heated sand on his butt. "AUW! THE SAND BURNS KIMI RAIKKICHI'S POOR REAR!!" he cried, getting up from the ground and began running around in circles in attempt to cool his butt down.

I wanted to laugh so badly at him, but quickly refrained myself, since the three of us still had an unfinished business with the mysterious Jonin. I scanned the desert carefully while narrowing my eyes. But still, the man was nowhere to be found. The high temperature didn't help much either, it only made the situation worse than it already was.

"The sun is killing me! If we keep on like this, then I'm sure we'll suffer from dehydration soon!" I groaned, wiping the bead of sweats off my forehead.

Unknown to me, the red-head had suddenly gained an idea inside his mind. He remembered one of the theories which he had read in his grandmother's Geography book when he was little. The Zenith Time. He narrowed his eyes while looking at the sky above him. "If the sun is shining directly above me... then..." He turned his gaze to the ground below him, and smirked. "Then how come there's a shadow lingering right beneath my body?"

"Huh?" I asked, turning my head to face him. I saw Sasori attaching his chakra strings on Karasu's body and quickly flicked his fingers to control it, making it lunge at the ground and smashed the shadow and the sands below him, as he jumped away from his previous standing spot to avoid the impact, his strings still attached to his giant puppet.

I squinted my eyes to get a better view inside the large amount of smog that was surrounding me. My head snapped to the right as soon as I spotted a black figure dashing outside the thick air of sand. "THERE HE IS!" I yelled, running behind the tall figure, attempting to catch up with it.

"Quick! Don't let him get away!" Sasori yelled from behind me.

I didn't look back at him as I kept my eyes locked to the Jonin whom I were running after. I quickly made the first hand seal that came out in my mind, hoping that I could still catch the Jonin in time. "TSURU KUSA NO JUTSU!"

A long vine whip appeared in my hand and launched itself toward the Jonin's body, wrapping tightly against his right leg, making him lose his balance and fell flat on his face.

I were about to approach him, but apparently Kimi Raikkichi had beaten me to it. He snatched the brown wallet from the Jonin's back pocket and waved it at both me and Sasori. "Yay, we did it! We've got Jonin's sensei wallet!" he exclaimed happily.

Both me and Sasori ran over to Kimi Raikkichi's side, clearly couldn't wait to find out about my teacher's true identity. "Quick, open the wallet, Kimi!" I said.

The blonde nodded as he opened the wallet and took out a white card from it. "Aha! Here it is!" he said, giving the card to me. "Eeh... wait, there's another one..." he added, taking out another card from the wallet and gave it to Sasori. "And another one....! And another... And another one. And another one. And... Hey, how come there are so many identity cards here???" he asked, turning the wallet upside down to let all the cards fall onto the ground.

I heard a light chuckle emanating from the smiling Jonin. "That is actually another part of your test. You have to figure out which card has my real identity on it," He trailed off, dusting his self as soon as he had stood upward on the ground. "Your time is limited until tomorrow morning. Meet me back at the park on 5 o'clock in the morning." He instructed, grinning at my gawking face.

"Five o'clock?? You've gotta be kidding me!" I whined, not wanting to get up so early on Saturday morning.

"Make sure you are there on time. Ciao, kiddos!" he waved and his body suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smokes. The three of us didn't realize that he was actually another shadow clone, until now.

"Great," I muttered under my breath, picking up the cards that were lying on the ground beneath me. "He left us here. What are we going to do now?"

"We should go back to the village." Sasori stated calmly, putting his puppet back into his scroll.

"But we don't know the way back to the village." Kimi Raikkichi added, looking around him just to find a plain view of a deserted... well, desert.

"Good point," I said. "We need to come up with a plan."

* * *

Phew, that was a long one! Eh... maybe not really, but longer than the last one, at least! Hehehe. Boy, I just realized that I haven't updated for a month! (I think) Sorry, readers!

Hmm... there's no need to put a word info here... oh! **Tsuru Kusa** means **Vine**, but it doesn't really matter since it is a name of a jutsu. It doesn't have to have the same meaning as the jutsu ^^ or does it?

Well anyway, thanks for reading! Please leave a review!

Ja ne!


	9. The Meeting with The Raikkichis

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 9**

**Meeting the Raikkichis**

**~Haruka's POV~**

After a long period of finding a way to go back to the village, the three of us had finally arrived back outside the gate of Suna. Thanks to the trail of pebbles which Kimi Raikkichi had been dropping from the beginning of our journey with our creepy Jonin. I could say it was a bit ludicrous, being saved by a method that I had once read in a children's story back when I was still litte. I admitted, it was clever of the Blonde to leave a trail like that. If he hadn't left some, the three of us would still be barbecued on the heated desert right now.

"Finally..." I panted heavily, staggering my way inside the village, with both Sasori and Kimi Raikkichi not too far in front of me. "Now I know how Hansel and Gretel felt when they managed to go back home safely."

"You can't feel relieved just yet. We still have to figure out which one of these cards actually holds the real identity of that Jonin," Sasori said, taking the wallet out from his pocket. "It's almost dark. We should be returning home now." He added, looking at the reddened sky above us.

"But how are we supposed to figure that out if we're going back home now? We don't have much time until tomorrow morning, or at least until our bedtime." I complained.

"As if we'll be able to get some sleep tonight." The red-head snorted, putting the wallet back into his hidden pocket. "I believe it's better for the three of us if I sort this out on my own. "

"Hee? No way! We're in this together; you can't just do all the work on your own!" I contradicted, tugging on his long sleeve. "Besides, we've still got plenty of time to solve this problem."

"Ooo!" the Blonde suddenly squealed, waving his hands in front of both me and Sasori. "Kimi Raikkichi has an idea! Why don't Haruka-chan and Aka-no-baka have a sleepover at Kimi Raikkichi's house tonight?"

"And what does that have to do with our mission, exactly?" Sasori asked lazily, tapping his foot on the ground in a gesture of impatience.

"Good idea! If we stay at your place tonight, we'll be able to solve our test together!" I said, agreeing with Kimi Raikkichi's suggestion. "What do you say, Sasori?"

I looked over at my childhood friend, only to find his right eye twitching in a mix of shock, stress, and annoyance.

"No." He responded shortly, turning around and started walking away from both me and Kimi.

"Hey! Wait up! You can't just leave like that!"

Hearing me calling out after him, the puppeteer then halted and turned his head back at me. "I'd rather solve this one on my own than have a sleepover at that Idiot's place. And there's nothing you could possibly do to change that."

* * *

**~One Hour Later~**

"I can't believe you've dragged me into this..." Sasori cursed, as I dragged him with Kimi by my long vine whip on our way toward Raikkichi's house.

"Stop complaining. We're a team now, so we have to do this _together." _I said, still pulling onto the whip.

We dropped by my house for a little while so I could take some clothes with me and told my grandma that I was about to have a sleepover at my friend's house before we continued with our journey to the Raikkichi's resident. We didn't stop by at Sasori's house though, since we knew that he'd try to run away if we let him free for even a minute to get his stuffs packed.

Apparently, Kimi Raikkichi's house isn't too far from my own, so it only took us some minutes before finally arriving there.

"Here we are!" Kimi announced, turning around to face me and Sasori.

I couldn't help but to gawk as I stared at the house in front of me.

It. Was. Huge.

I knew I had passed by it once or twice, but I never knew that this huge mansion actually belonged to the mindless Blonde! The front door was probably twice as big as mine. I think it was made out of... I don't know... Bronze? But it sure seemed like it was. It was the only thing that made the house looked like it was still being owned by someone, since the walls and roof were covered in thick beige paint.

Kimi Raikkichi led our way to his front door, turning the gargoyle-shaped knob around before proceeding on pushing the door open to reveal the room inside.

Honestly, I couldn't help but to gawk even more when I stepped inside his house.

It. Was. Bright.

_Reaaalllly _bright.

There were chandeliers all over the place. The walls were painted in rainbow colors, statues of rainbow monkeys were placed in every corner of the huge hallway, paintings of Monalisa wearing different shades of hats and glasses were hung on the colourful wall above the colourful monkey statues. The floor was covered in red and yellow carpet, giving the house an even dizzier look than it already was.

"This... is your house?" I asked my blond friend, who nodded excitedly in response.

"Hai, hai! Does Haruka-chan like Kimi Raikkichi's house? Kimi Raikkichi bets Haruka-chan does!" he assumed without giving me a chance to answer it, although I knew I was going to answer otherwise, but, oh well...

"Here! Kimi Raikkichi will give Kimi Raikkichi's teammates a tour around Kimi Raikkichi's house!" he trailed off before leading the way through the giant hallway.

I couldn't help but to try covering my eyes in vain as we walked across the corridor. The view here was just so... blinding. Too colourful for my poor eyes to bear. I took a look at my red-headed friend, who was still being dragged by both me and Kimi Raikkichi, and noticed that he was trying to do the exact thing that I was trying to do: Shielding his eyes from the blinding view.

Kimi didn't seem to notice, though. I wonder if every member of his family had the same odd taste as he did.

"Welcome, strangers!" a loud voice called out, snapping me out of my previous trance. I took a look ahead of me and saw a guy that looked like a bigger clone of Kimi standing next to one of the rainbow monkey statues. He was wearing a shirt and baggy pants, with the letter "T" all over it. I guessed his name must start with the letter T, then. But more importantly, who was he anyway? Kimi never mentioned that he had an older brother, not to mention a very cute one indeed.

"Otou-chan!" Kimi yelled as he ran toward the man's welcoming embrace and tackled the poor guy into a deadly hug.

I froze on my spot when I heard the word which Kimi had just yelled out.

_Otou-chan!_

_Otou-chan!_

_Otou-chan!_

_Ooo... tou... chaaaaan..._

The word kept playing repeatedly inside my mind. It took me long enough before I finally realized that the 18-year-old-looking guy was actually Kimi Raikkichi's FATHER!

"Y-you... you... you..." I stuttered as my wide eyes were still glued at the figure in front of me. "You're Kimi's father???"

"Hai-hai-haaaii... Tou-chan, meet Haruka-chan, and Aka-no-baka. Haruka-chan, Aka-no-baka, meet Kimi Raikkichi's tou-chan, Tou-tou!"

I raised an eyebrow at both of them, while Sasori's left eye was twitching non-stop. Seriously, this guy couldn't be Kimi's father! He couldn't!

"Konnichiwa, strangers that are no longer strangers!" the man grinned and waved at us. "Tou-tou's name is Touya Raikkichi, but everyone calls Tou-Tou Tou-Tou!" he continued introducing himself.

"Oh great... not another Raikkichi..." Sasori sighed desperately, resting his head onto my back.

"C'mon! Kimi Raikkichi will introduce Haruka-chan and Aka-no-baka the rest of Kimi Raikkichi's family!" the smaller blonde said, skipping his way through the rest of the never-ending hallway, with his father right next to him, who was, unfortunately, skipping happily right next to his happy son.

I can't wait to meet the other members of his family...

"Can you let me go now? I won't be able to run away from this house anyway if you do, because apparently, I've lost my way back to the front door." The red-head grumbled boredly.

Seeing that he actually had a point, I decided to release him from the grip of my vine. He rubbed his arms severely as soon as he was free from my grasp, making sure that they were still there.

"We better go, Kimi and his dad are almost out of sight," I suggested, taking fast steps down the hallway. "We don't want to be stuck here forever, now come on!"

Sasori just let out a heavy sighed before deciding to follow behind me.

* * *

"This is Kimi Raikkichi's Okaa-chan, and this is Kimi Raikkichi's Obaa-chan, and this is Kimi Raikkichi's Ojii-chan, and this is..."

I was now sitting around the dining table along with the other members of the Raikkichi's family. There were at least 9 people inside the room, excluding the maids and the other butlers that were standing straight in each side of the colourful walls.

Kimi's family sure was big, not mention very young as well. His grandparents looked like they were in the same age as my sensei at school, and his parents and his parents' relatives seemed to be around 18 or something. I wonder what caused them to look so fit and young.

"... and finally, Kimi Raikkichi's woo-woo, Woo-Woo!"

Both I and Sasori raised an eyebrow at the blonde. "What's a... woo-woo?" I asked.

"Oh, that's '_Dog_' in our Raikkichi's language." Kaochi Raikkichi- er, Kimi's mom explained.

"I see..." I stated blankly, looking at Kimi's odd looking dog. Well, I wouldn't call it odd if only had one head instead if 3 in one body!

Just then, a gust of wind flew past me and the red-head who was sitting next to me, stopping at the end of the long dining table. We looked at the source of it and saw a woman holding onto trays of food was smiling down at the 9 of us. "Here are the desserts!!"

She sure moved quickly... I wonder if every Raikkichi could move that fa- wait, did she just say desserts???

"Um, Kimi... what about the main course?" I whispered quietly to the Blonde who was sitting on the chair next to me.

"Kimi Raikkichi and Kimi Raikkichi's family always serve desserts before the main course! It's all in the tradition!" he replied, taking one sweet chocolate cake onto his small plate. "Here Haruka-chan, Aka-no-Baka, take some too! They're yummy!"

Well, I always wanted to have desserts first, so I guess it's alright to eat one.

"Can this family get any weirder?" Sasori whispered into my ear, eyeing the black-forest cake suspiciously.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we're gonna find out sooner or later." I said, taking a bite of the cake into my mouth.

And for once, Kimi was right. This cake _**is**_ delicious!

* * *

I know I haven't updated for months, and I know that this chapter was short, and I know that there's not much Sasori in it TT-TT I'm so sorry!

But I promise the next one will be longer! Pinky swear!!!!

Well then, Ja ne!


	10. A Long Night

**Author's Note : **Wow, I think I've really overdone it this time. I can't believe this story has been in hiatus for a year. I'm really sorry for letting everyone down. I'm going to start updating more often now. I hope you will give me another chance, dear readers!  
By the way, please forgive me if there's any grammatical errors! I'm still improving my writing till now, I know it's still far from perfect, so please bear with me ^^ arigatou~

**Disclaimer : **I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

**Chapter ****10**

**A Long Night**

**~Haruka's POV~**

It was already 11 pm, yet I sill couldn't get myself to shut my eyes firmly. I didn't think anyone _would _be able to sleep by themselves in this overly broad Victorian-designed room. Not to mention the fact that all the lights were off, so I could hardly see anything insight.

And that really bothered me.

I swore I could hear rustling noises coming from outside the giant window. I should have asked Kimi-kun to give me a smaller guest room, now I wouldn't be able to get some sleep for tonight due to my over-paranoid self!

_Creak..._

I shot up from my bed, gripping the cover tightly. This time, I swore I had heard something abnormal coming from outside the window. With all the remaining courage that I had left, I slowly turned my head directly at the window to see the source of the said noise. I totally regret what I just did, because then I saw it - that... white floating thing- glaring at me right outside my bedroom window.

"AAAAAAAAAAA!" I couldn't handle it anymore. I screamed at the top of my lungs and darted out of my room as quickly as I could, not daring to take glance back. I ran and ran through the darkness of the hall, almost tripping over the loose carpet on the ground. Finally, I stopped in front of a certain door, and banged my trembling hands on it, "SASORI! SASORI, OPEN UP!" I pounded for quite a time, before the door was finally swung open by my grumpy-looking redheaded friend.

"What do you want, Haru-_oof_!" before he could even finished his question, I immediately glomped him and buried my face in his shirt.

"Sasori! Something terrible just happened to me! I saw a lost spirit outside my bedroom's window and I think it wanted to pull me into the grave with it!" I rambled on, still having my firm grip on him.

Sasori only raised an eyebrow at me, "So? You expect me to jump into the grave with you?"

I pouted at his lenten comment, "Please, Sasori, let me stay with you for the night! I wouldn't be able to sleep with all those ghosts floating around the house! Please please please...!"

"No, you're just gonna get in my way of finding the jonin's true identity, especially with that annoying whining of yours."

"I promise I'll stay as quiet as a mouse! A _dead_ mouse! Please let me stay..."

The red head gazed down at me. Perhaps he was feeling kind of sorry for my poor self since I looked like I was going to cry - or even faint- if he didn't let me stay with him. So with that, he sighed before taking a step aside, allowing me to come forward into his room, "Just don't bother me and my work... and stop yelling so loudly, you're gonna wake the others up."

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" I replied gratefully before running inside his room, letting him closing the door behind me. Sasori only shook his head and went to sat by his desk while I took a seat on his comfy bed. "So, how's your analysis going?"

"It's not gonna work out unless you keep your mouth shut."

I pouted. Why must he be such a jerk?

"Geez, it was just a simple question, stupid red-head." I mumbled the last part out.

"I heard that."

I rolled my eyes and laid myself on his four-poster bed. There was no use trying to argue with my stubborn childhood friend. His aggravating behavior made it hard for me to ever win over him. The best thing I could do now was to stay as silent as possible, but I had to keep my eyes opened in case he needed me.

Time seemed to pass so slowly since I had nothing better to do than to just sit here staring at the ceiling, while the red-head was working on our case without making any single sound. My eyelids began to feel heavier and heavier by the second, but then, a sound of loud biffing on the desk soon brought me back to reality. I panicked and leaped on the bed in reflex.

"What? What happened, what?"

A growl of annoyance was the only reply that I received. I turned at the red-head and saw him cupping his face with his palms in frustration, "Sasori, what's wrong?" I asked as I approached him.

"_This_ is wrong. These cards aren't making any sense. They only hold the identities of the former kages in 5 Ninja countries, not the identity of that Jonin!" the puppeteer answered in raged, shoving the cards off his desk.

I grabbed 3 of the cards and examined them. The first one had a picture of the ex-Tsuchikage. The second one, ex-Raikage. The third one, ex-Hokage. I took a quick look at the other cards, and immediately knew what Sasori had said was right. The ID cards were all fake.

"Yep, they're fauxes alright," I said, putting the cards back on Sasori's desk."But I don't think the Jonin gave us this mission just to play pranks on us. There must be another plan behind all this."

"I know, but what?"

Suddenly, we heard a loud pounding on the door. Sasori went to get it, but as he turned on the handle, it suddenly bursted open, slamming him hard on the face. A sudden gust of wind entered the room, halting right next to me. I looked to my right and saw the familiar guilty blonde figure was trembling madly, trying to hold back his urge laugh. But he eventually gave up and fell on the ground, releasing his fit of joyful laugher.

"HAHAHA! Aka no Baka should see the look on Aka no Baka's face!" Kimi Raikkichi cried, holding onto his shaking stomach.

I glanced at Kimi, then at Sasori. The puppeteer was holding his slightly bleeding nose. His eyes signified burning hatred, I could feel it on my skin even though it was directed at the laughing blonde. I was about to reprove Kimi for what he had done to my wounded friend, but before I could even blink, Sasori was already sitting ontop of Kimi, hurling punches on his face.

"Sasori!" I yelled, staring at the red-head in horror.

Unwilling to accept his beating, Kimi kicked the puppeteer on his stomach hard before tackling him on the ground, switching their positions. Kimi managed to throw a punch on Sasori's flawless face, before jumping up and darted away from his opponent as far as he could. Sasori brought his hands up and activated his chakra string, but the blonde successfully dodged them before they could even reach his body.

"Quit it, guys!" I cried desperately to no avail.

Kimi continued running around the room with Sasori's chakra strings following behind him. They kept attaching themselves onto the wrong places; the cupboard, the pillow, even the door handle. When the chakra strings were attached to one of the jonin's ID cards, I saw a flicker of light flashed upon its surface, but quickly disappeared as soon as the strings were removed from it.

"Guys!" I yelled again, trying to gain my teammates' attention, but they were too busy chasing each other to even notice me. I walked over to where the scattered ID cards were and took the card that had been previously touched by Sasori's chakra strings. I examined it, looking for a trace of light that was previously emitted from it, but found none. Then I remembered the thing that made the card glow earlier, and that was Sasori's chakra strings.

The word 'chakra' kept echoing inside my mind as I slowly flowed my own chakra to the tip of my fingers and onto the ID card. Then it happened. One of the letters on the card glowed.

_**H**ASHIRAMA SENJUU_

I stared at it disbelievingly at first, trying to process what was I had finally snapped out of my trance, I jumped up and turned excitedly to my teammates.

"GUYS! GUYS, YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THIS!" I waved the glowing card at them enthusiastically. Seeing that they were still ignoring, I summoned my vinewhip and lashed it onto the floor loudly, making them halted in surprise.

"OY! QUIT FIGHTING AND GET OVER HERE!" I ordered loudly. They both remained frozen and dumbfounded, giving me no other choice but to repeat my previous action. "NOW!"

Without wasting another second, the boys hurriedly went over to my side and were right next to me in a flash.

"What is it, Haruka-chan?" Kimi asked, looking over my shoulder. Both him and Sasori seemed to have forgotten of their brawling earlier.

"Take a look at this, guys!" I held out the ID card at them and cover it with my chakra. What happened next made the boys' eyes - including Sasori's originally lazy ones - grew larger than a pair of tennis balls.

"What the..." the red-head whispered, completely forgotten of his bleeding nose.

"Haruka-chan! How on earth did-"

"These are no ordinary cards, Kimi-kun! I think they're made of chakra papers."

Sasori took another card from the ground and flowed his own chakra onto it. His face lit up when a letter glowed slowly glowed under his fingertips, "Let's see if all these cards are made from the same material." he attached his chakra strings onto the remaining cards and 4 of them immediately glowed.

I read out the glowing letters loudly, "K-T-O-A-H and another O."

"Maybe the Jounin's name is KTOAHA-sensei?" Kimi asked.

"That's not even a proper name, fool," Sasori replied. "I think we have to put them in a certain order."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully at this, "Based on what order?"

"I don't know, it can be any kind of order."

"Why don't we try putting them in order of their birthdays first?" Kimi suggested.

"I say we start with the date of their deaths first."

"How about we start with their birthdays first, then their deaths?" I intercepted before the boys could start another argument.

The three of us sorted the cards in both order, and surprisingly, they resulted in one same word : AKOTOH.

"What kind of name is Akotoh?" I wondered outloud.

"The kind that doesn't exist." Sasori murmured and unattached his strings from the ID cards.

The three of us fell into a deep silence. We thought really hard about the unsolved riddle lying in front of our eyes, trying to solve it with the power of our prodigious brains. Unfortunately, time passed by without any single outcome, and I figured that our brains were probably not so prodigious after all.

"Gah! I don't know what's wrong with these letters. We were so close!" I sighed, plopping myself on Sasori's bed.

"Wait!" Kimi suddenly exclaimed out of the blue as I was about to give up, "Kimi Raikkichi thinks Kimi Raikkichi has got it."

I shot up from my bed and scurried over to Kimi's side, "What? Have you figured something out?" I asked hopefully.

"Kimi Raikkichi remembers that Jounin-sensei was wearing everything in a weird way. Jounin-sensei wore everything backwards."

Sasori rolled his eyes at the blonde, "Your point?"

"Well, maybe Jounin-sensei spells his name backwards too!"

Kimi's statements usually didn't make any sense, but it was an exception this time. Something immediately clicked on both my and Sasori's minds as we heard what the blonde had said. The three of us circled ourselves around the cards and read all the previously glowing letters in a reverse order. I couldn't believe what we saw - the word was actually spelled in a proper way, and it read :

_**H O T O K A**_

"That's it! Jounin-sensei's name must be Hotoka! Yatta-ne!" Kimi exclaimed happily while jumping up and down with joy.

I couldn't help but to jump along with him, feeling the sudden sense of accomplishment flowing through my skin, "Well done, Kimi! You're a genius!"

Sasori only sighed deeply, but this time, in content. I could even see a small smile forming on his face, "This is the first time you did something right."

Kimi puffed his cheeks at this, but then grinned cheekily as soon as he knew that Sasori was actually complimenting him, "Arigatou, Aka-no-Baka!"

Sasori chose to shrug off Kimi's nickname for him and proceeded on putting the ID cards into his pockets, "It's already midnight. We'd better sleep if we don't want to be late tomorrow."

Kimi and I nodded before heading out of Sasori's room, bidding goodnights to each other. As the door closed and locked behind me, I instantly remembered the reason I went into Sasori's room in the first place. The next thing I knew, I found myself knocking frantically onto his door.

"Sasori! Open up! I wanna stay for the night!"

"Can't hear you. I'm already asleep."

"How can you say that when you are already asleep?"

"Zzz..."

"Sasori!"

"How about sleeping in Kimi Raikkichi's room instead, Haruka-chan?"

And before I could even decline the kind offer from my kind blonde friend, I had found myself dragged off by him through the dim corridor in a speed of light.

* * *

Well, I guess that was kind of short. But I **_will _**update sooner than last time!  
Well then, have a nice day!


	11. Introduction

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 11**

**Introduction**

**~Third Person's POV~**

An endless desert of creamy white sand spread vastly outside the gate of Sunagakure. The sky was dark since the dawn had yet to arrive. Citizens of Suna were still ensnared in each of their own slumbers, except for the 4 shinobis - one jounin and three genins - who were now gathering in the middle of the said desert. They sat still on their spot, not letting the dropping temperature detrude their currently burning zeal to start a brand new day and a brand new mission.

Apparently, stamina could not be increased only by one's burning passion. Despite the raging vigor that was flowing in their vein, the three genins had to fight hard to stay awake, - two of them, that is. The blonde one - Kimi Raikkichi- was already sprawled on the desert ground, drools hanging at the corner of his slightly opened mouth. His right cheek was slightly scraped, dried blood staining his originally tender face. But not even his wound managed to keep him from sleeping. Sasori, who had his nose all wrapped up with white bandage, was staring off into distance, his eyelids half opened, and he was muttering incoherent things under his breath.

"I truly appreciate your punctuality, kids, but..." the man in inverted clothing paused, staring at the somnolent faces in front of him, sweat dropping as he realized that one of the weary genins had peacefully dozed off into slumber. "don't you think you are being too... on time, now? I thought I told you to gather here at 5 am, not 4 in the morning. Not to mention, you boys look like you've just survived a great war," he paused, sniffing the air around him. "And is it just me or did you bring a stray dog with you here? I can smell the stinky odor coming from you three."

"That... would be me," The only girl in the team raised her hand after having a hard attempt on stifling her yawn, "We've been through a lot last night, sensei."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No, not really," Haruka paused, "it will take too much time if I tell you the whole story." Nodding to herself, she slowly closed her eyes as the last night's events crept back inside her restless mind.

* * *

_"How about sleeping in Kimi Raikkichi's room instead, Haruka-chan?"_

That was the last thing that she heard before she found herself being dragged off by her blond friend through the dim corridor. Everything went blurry as the wind hurled up harshly against her face while Kimi was running toward his destination in a speed of light, pulling her with him by the arm. The next thing she knew, she was already inside a certain room, after a quick halt and hearing the door slamming behind her.

"What... just happened?" Haruka thought outloud, massaging her temple. "Where are we?"

"Dum-dum-dum, welcome to Kimi Raikkichi's bedroom!"

Haruka's eyes wandered around her whereabouts, mouth slightly gaping at the sight of the room she was currently standing in. It was slightly bigger than the guest rooms, but looked far more elegant than the other rooms she had seen in the mansion. The walls were all bronze colored and the ceiling was painted to resemble the morning sky; soft blue colored with slight details of clouds around it.

The room was absolutely glamorous, but what Haruka loved the most about it were the curtains covering the windows. They were deep red, which was her favorite color. It reminded her of Sasori's flaming red hair. She quickly shook her thoughts away before they could travel even further in her head.

"Does Haruka-chan likes Kimi Raikkichi's bedroom?"

The brunette turned to look at her blond friend's happy face. She could only nod as a response, words could not express how excited she was from being in Kimi's magnificent bed room. She could not wait to plump herself on the giant bed and drift off to slumber.

"Kimi Raikkichi is glad that Haruka-chan likes the room!" the blond smiled, clapping his hands. "Haruka-chan can use the bed, Kimi Raikkichi will use the sofa instead."

"Really?" Haruka stared at her friend in disbelief. She had never thought that Kimi Raikkichi could be such a gentleman. '_Unlike Sasori',_ she thought.

"Of course!"

"Wow, thanks a lot Kimi-kun!" she wasted no time on accepting the offer and skipped her way to Kimi's giant bed. She opened the cover and was ready to bury herself inside it, when she spotted an unwanted creature laying inside the cover, eyes snapping open when it felt her sliding the blanket of its body.

"Why is Haruka-chan so surprised? Didn't Kimi Raikkichi already tell Haruka-chan that he sleeps with Woo-woo every night?"

Haruka took a step back in horror, staring at the giant three-headed dog in front of her. "No, Kimi-kun... I'm afraid you left that part- **AAAAAAAAA**!"

* * *

Sasori ran through the endless hallway, speeding up toward the direction of the annoying blonde's room. He could not let his childhood friend sleep in the same room with that harebrained imbecile. Even though the idiot was probably too stupid to even think of doing perverted things to his friend, he could not risk the chance of Haruka losing her innocence to someone like Kimi Raikkichi.

Sasori didn't care that he was taking his thoughts too far on this matter. All he cared about now was to get Haruka as far away as possible from Raikkichi's stupid wrath before anything bad happens. His grandmother would surely blame everything on him and he would never want that to happen.

He thought he was lost for a moment, when he suddenly heard a familiar screaming coming from the right side of the corridor. He quickly ran toward the source of the sound, his heart beating fast knowing that the voice belonged to Haruka. It went clearer as he neared the location. He could make out some of the words that she was yelling out.

_"Aaaaaah! Get off me!"_ Sasori quickened his pace as he heard another scream coming from the direction of Kimi Raikkichi's room. _"S-stop licking me!"_

"Aww, Haruka-chan is kissed and loved! Kimi Raikkichi wants more of that!"

_'Lick? Kiss?'_ Sasori could feel his ears flared in anger, thoughts flying back to his assumptions of the awful things Kimi Raikkichi could be doing to the defenceless Haruka inside his room. He finally arrived in front Kimi's door and kicked it open, eyes searching around the room frantically for his friend in distress, only to stop as he spotted Haruka laying on the ground with a three-headed dog hovering above her, licking her face senseless.

"I said, stop _licking_ me! Get off!"

"Woo-woo is just _kissing_ and sharing his _love_ with Haruka-chan! Kimi Raikkichi thinks it's great that Woo-woo has finally made a new friend!" Kimi laughed happily, but he immediately stopped smiling when he saw Sasori standing in front of his door. "What is Aka-no-Baka doing here?"

Haruka's head tilted to the right. Her eyes gleamed in relief when she saw her childhood friend in view. "Sasori! Help me get this dog off me!"

The dog suddenly stopped its licking assault on Haruka and followed her gaze to the new comer in the room. Its tail began wagging rapidly as it changed its target from the saliva-covered girl to the shocked red-headed puppeteer. In reflex, Sasori shot his hands in front of him and attached the chakra strings onto the dog's body, stopping the creature before it licks him senseless. The three-headed dog barked loudly, struggling to release itself from Sasori's strings. The puppeteer had a hard time controling his strings for the creature in his hold was moving around too much.

"Aka-no-baka! Stop hurting Kimi Raikkichi's poor Woo-woo!" Kimi exclaimed and threw himself at Sasori, starting another fight with his teammate.

"Quit it, guys- AIIIEEEEEE!" Haruka was about to separate the two when the dog decided to once again pounce on her and continued its unfinished licking attack. "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Much to the girl's dismay, her teammates were too occupied on ripping each other's flesh off their bones to notice her being drowned in a puddle of the dog's saliva. She could only hope that the scene before her would come to an end soon. Too bad her wish wasn't granted and she was left laying on the ground with the dog hovering above her until exactly 3 in the morning.

* * *

"... I'll never stay over at Kimi-kun's house ever again..." Haruka muttered. Her mind had just gotten back from her flash back of last night's event.

"Okay..." the jonin trailed off, unsure of what to respond to Haruka's incoherent mumbling after she had spent 5 minutes staring off into space without saying a single word. He shrugg all assumptions off and decided to wake the blond boy instead.

"Mmm, is it morning already?" Kimi Raikkichi yawned while rubbing his eyes.

"So, now that you're all awake," the jonin started. "Let's find out whether you pass my test or not. So have you all figured out my-"

"Hai, **Hotoka**-sensei," the three genins answered in unison, making their teacher did an anime fall.

"That was unexpected," the jonin laughed while rubbing his head. "I guess we're all ready for introduction now. You, red-headed boy. We'll start with you. Tell me your name, age, hobbies, well, basically anything that comes up to your mind."

"Akasuna no Sasori. Fourteen. " the puppeteer said nonchalantly.

"How...i_nteresting_. Anything else you'd care to share with us?"

"He's a puppeteer and he likes to make creepy puppets out of woods," Haruka answered enthusiastically for her friend.

"I see... a puppeteer, eh? And what about you, young lady?"

"I'm Shokubutsu no Haruka, also 14. My hobbies are daydreaming and spending time with my grandma and of course, my best friend, Sasori!" she put her arm around her red-headed friend as she said this.

"Get off me, I'm not your best friend. And you smell like a dog."

Haruka gasped at her friend's cruel response, "How could you say that? You jerk!"

"Okay... let's move on to the blondie now," the Jonin said, averting his gaze to the smiling Kimi.

"Kimi Raikkichi's name is Kimi Raikkichi! Kimi Raikkichi is 14 years old. Kimi Raikkichi likes playing with Woo-woo but Kimi Raikkichi likes Haruka-chan the most! Even if Haruka-chan does smell like a dog."

"Kimi-kun!"

"Okay, okay, settle down, kids," Hotoka sighed, trying to stop his new pupils from killing each other first thing in the morning. He wasn't sure that he understood what they had said about themselves, especially the blond one. Being their jonin would surely be one hell of a mission. "You can all quarrel later. Right now, you have to prepare yourself for your very first mission as my pupils."

The three of them stopped bickering and locked their gaze at their new tutor, curiosity filling their eyes.

"We'll meet up at the Kazekage's office at 8. You'll have enough time to go clean yourself and rest for a bit before we depart. Make sure you scrub yourself well while you bathe, we wouldn't want that awful stench to linger in the kazekage's office now, would we?" he said, eyes stopping to glance at Haruka's way, who scowled as she noticed that his sentence was directed to her. "Get there on time and no more fighting until we get this mission done. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" both Haruka and Kimi Raikkichi yelled in unison, while Sasori only nodded in response.

"Good, now off you go. And remember! No fighting!"

"Our fists are sealed, sir!" Haruka yelled as she ran off with her friends toward the direction of the Suna's gate.

* * *

So, yeah, I over did it again. Ahaha~  
I haven't updated any of my fics here for so long. It's just that I'm kinda focused to my other fics about K-pop (I'm currently obsessed with it), so the fics here got abandoned.  
Sorry. It's a surprise if anyone actually still reads this even after this latest update. Hahaha.


	12. The First Mission

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 12**

**The First Mission**

Haruka yawned loudly, her mind barely registering what the Kazekage was currently saying to her and her teammates inside his office. She had taken hours scrubbing herself in the bathroom just to get rid of the stench that was glued on her body. She even used some of her grandmother's flower petals in the garden to make sure that the dog foul odor got off her for good. It was already 7 o'clock when she finished bathing. She didn't have time for a rest and was fighting hard to stay awake.

"It seems that there's no more D-rank mission available for today," the Kazekage's voice brought Haruka back from her tired reverie.

"Does that mean we don't have to do our first mission today?" the girl asked, hoping for the mission to be cancelled so she could rest at her house instead.

"Not precisely."

"Eh?"

"There are still a lot of C-ranked missions left unsettled," the kazekage continued. "Do you think you and your team and ready to take on this mission, Hotoka?"

"Erm... I don't know, this _is_ their first mission, after a-"

"WE'LL TAKE IT, SIR!"

"Eh, Kimi-kun?" Haruka looked at her blonde friend in disbelief.

"What's the mission?"

"S-Sasori? Not you too!"

"Alright then," the kazekage smiled. "Your mission is to guard the cemetery in the island of haze for 3 days."

Haruka's eyes widened at this. She could not even respond after she had heard the word 'cemetery' and 'the island of haze'. "C-C-Cemetery...?"

"Huh? Why would we need to guard the cemetery? Isn't that the place for dead people? Why would we need to protect dead people?"

Haruka could feel the goosebumps rising on her skin when she heard Kimi's words.

"Oh, forgive me, did I just say cemetery?" the kazekage laughed at his mistake, making Haruka sigh in relief before she heard him correcting himself, "I mean 'mortuary', not cemetery."

The poor girl's blood had gotten entirely drained from her face.

"Apparently some people have considered stealing the dead bodies and vandalizing the mortuary as their hobby. You'll need to guard the place from them and retrieve all the missing bodies that were stolen from there."

"Ooh... so all we have to do is to get the corpses back and beat up all those bad people?"

"To put it simply, yes."

Haruka stared at both Kimi and the kazekage as if they both had grown extra heads. She could not believe that she was going to protect a mortuary and collect corpses on her very first mission.

"Since when does that idiot start talking in an original point of view instead of his usual Kimi Raikkichi's one?" Sasori whispered to his childhood friend who only shrugged her shoulders as a response. He looked at her face and noticed that it had gotten a lot paler than usual. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? What? Oh, of course I am! Why wouldn't I be? Ahaha..."

Sasori knew she wasn't telling the truth but decided to drop the subject and focused his attention on the kazekage instead.

"Can we leave now? Can we? Can we?" the blond boy asked enthusiastically.

"Of course. Take care of them, Hotoka."

"Don't worry; these kids know how to take care of themselves. Right?"

"Right!" Kimi Raikkichi answered for his teammates.

The four of them bowed to the Kazekage before leaving his office and headed to the entrance gate of Suna. They would have to go through a long walk before they could reach their destination.

* * *

Hotoka led his pupils through the desert ground, heading toward the harbor located at the east end of the desert.

Haruka had no clue on exactly which way they were heading to. She only followed her teammates from behind, her steps hesitant and feeble. She had never thought she would have to go to her worst nightmare on her very first mission. It was so unnerving that she even thought of running away from this task and head back to her village to beg the kazekage to give her another mission. Realizing how pathetic her thoughts had sounded, she shook her head frantically. She could never ditch her own teams just because she was scared of facing the dead bodies in the mortuary. No matter how scared she was, she's still going to carry on this mission.

'_At least I'm not alone'_, she thought.

After passing through the desert for so long, the team finally arrived at the harbor. There was no one visible there, only some wooden boats with no owners. Haruka wondered if the people who rode the boats to the island of haze never came back to the harbor. She shuddered at her own thoughts and - for a second - reconsidered on riding the boat with her teammates.

"Are you guys sure that thing is safe to ride on?"

Her teammates looked at her in confusion. "Of course, why wouldn't it be?" Sasori answered for her.

In truth, Haruka was just making excuses to prevent herself from going to the island of death. She quickly shook her head again. Her fear was getting the better of her and she needed to get rid of it fast.

The four of them proceeded on riding the boat, with Hotoka and Sasori paddling while Kimi Raikkichi and Haruka sat in the middle.

It wasn't long until they found themselves inside the mist near the island. Haruka gulped when she saw the island was already in view. It didn't look like haunted island of death or anything but she knew better than to judge something by its cover.

Hotoka and Sasori stopped the boat at the harbor of the island. The four of them walked out of the boat and went to the central office of the village. It wasn't difficult to find it since there were only a few buildings on the island with no inhabitants in them.

'_What kind of village that has zero population? Oh right, this kind of village,' Haruka_ thought, eyes scanning her surroundings warily.

They finally arrived inside the office building where the man who gave the mission had been waiting for them. He was quite old, probably in his mid 50s.

"Welcome to the Island of Haze," the man smiled warmly. "Thank you very much for coming here to help us. "

"It's our job," Hotoka smiled back.

"I believe the kazekage has already told you about our crisis here?"

"Yes, he has and we'll be glad if you can take us on a short tour around the area."

"Of course, of course. Follow me," the old man said as he began to lead them out of the office, but stopped just before he reached the door. "Oh, where is my manner... I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Bukchoy Nigiri but you can just call me Bukchoy."

Hearing the old man's name, Haruka and Kimi glanced at each other for a moment before snorting in unison and quickly covering their laughter with a cough. Even the red-head was biting the inside of his cheek to refrain himself from laughing.

"My name is Hotoka and these are my pupils, Sasori, Kimi and-"

"KIMI RAIKKICHI!"

"...yes, Kimi Raikkichi... and Haruka."

"Ah, I see. It's a pleasure to meet you all," the man said warmly at the 4 of them. "You know, my grandson has the same name as you, Hatori."

"...sir, it's Hotoka."

"Yes, yes, that's what I said, Hisoka. Well anyway, I can tell you more about him later, we'd better move on with the tour now."

The team sweatdropped at the old man in front of them, following behind him in silence.

They walked past many old buildings on their way to the mortuary. Haruka took notice at how eerie the place was. She did not see any living beings during their walk. Everything around them looked dull and desolated. She wondered how the old man was able to live by himself on this island.

"Sir, how can you live on this isolated island on your own?" Haruka decided to voice her thought out.

"Live?" Bukchoy slowed his pace and glanced back at Haruka. "Ohoho, young girl, I don't live on this island. Nobody does."

"Eh?"

"I only came here today to give you a tour around the mortuary. I will return to my home island after finishing my job."

"S-so... the only people here on the island... is us?"

"Indeed. Oh, don't forget about the thieves. They might be here as well."

Haruka chose to end their conversation there and remained silent throughout the journey. She couldn't help but keep wondering about the worse things that could happen to them during their stay here. Before she knew it, they had already arrived in front of their destination.

"Here we are," the old man's voice brought Haruka out of her reverie.

Haruka felt a shiver running down her spine as she looked at the building in front of her. Sure, the whole town seemed dead and lifeless, but this building topped it all. If it weren't for the gargoyles on the top of the building, it would seem like a normal house for her.

Okay, it was a lie. Even without the gargoyles, it would still look like a mortuary to her paranoid eyes.

Bukchoy unlocked the entrance door before sliding the steel door open, revealing a long hallway inside. "Let's get in."

Hotoka and the boys followed after him but Haruka stayed at where she was. The group soon noticed her absence as they walked further into the building. They turned around and looked at her shaking form in front of the main door.

"...Haruka?" Hotoka called out unsurely.

The girl had her arms around herself, eyes glued onto the long hallway before her. Her lips were quivering as she stared at the dark scene in front of her. "Please... please not here... anywhere but here..."

"Haruka, it's alright..." Hotoka said, walking toward the poor girl.

"No... no, please, I can't go in there..."

"Don't worry, nothing will happen to you. We're here, remember?"

"No, no, I still can't..."

"Haruka-chan, it's alright. Kimi Raikkichi is here with you!" the blond boy added reassuringly.

"B-but I... I-" Haruka was about to continue when she felt her feet suddenly walked on their own. She looked down at her body and her eyes widened when she saw blue chakra strings had attached themselves on her. "NO! LET ME GO!"

"Stop whining and just get inside. The faster you do it, the faster this mission will end." Sasori replied nonchalantly, moving Haruka's body until she had walked past the door.

"NO! LET ME OUT OF HERE! STOP CONTROLLING MY BODY!"

"Aka-no-baka, stop it! Haruka-chan's freaking out!" Kimi Raikkichi yelled.

"Do you want to get this mission done or what?"

"Well..."

"Ah, younglings these days... they are so full of spirits!" Bukchoy exclaimed happily, still walking deeper into the mortuary.

Hotoka could only sweatdrop at the comment.

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO!"

"Quit... struggling.. so much!"

"Aka-no-baka, don't be too hard on Haruka-chan!"

Hotoka sighed inwardly, _'This is going to be a long mission..__ I can tell..__.'_

* * *

After many futile attempts of freeing herself from Sasori's grasp, Haruka finally gave up and let herself get dragged across the room by the puppeteer. It was no use fighting him for he was stronger than her. She could only hope to come out of the building alive after this smothering tour.

She looked at her surroundings to avert her mind from thinking about the dead bodies. The building looked even worse inside than outside: peeling paint on some walls, disorganized wood paneling on the ceiling, filthy cobwebs on every paneling, rickety floor board that seemed to always creak everytime it was being stepped on. In short, the place was a mess.

"Here we are," Bukchoy announced their arrival and opened another large steel door, leading them into a pitch black room.

"It's so dark! Kimi Raikkichi can't see a thing!"

"That's because I haven't turned on the light," the old man chuckled. "Now, where is that light switch... Ah! Here it is!" with a single flick of his finger, the lamp was on, illuminating the room below it.

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight inside the room. There were numerous of frozen glass tubes on the wall, filled with corpses which varied from male to female, young to old.

"Wow..." Kimi Raikkichi breathed out, taking a closer look at one of the glass tubes.

"Yes, wow indeed," Bukchoy replied.

"See, Haruka-chan? They're not so scary at all! In fact, they are kinda coo- Haruka-chan?"

Unfortunately, they were all too occupied on the canned corpses; they didn't realize that Sasori had loosen his chakra strings on Haruka's body and that the girl had successfully escaped from his wrath and disappeared from their view.

* * *

She ran out of the mortuary, not once looking back for she was afraid that Sasori might be on her track. Quickening her pace, Haruka finally arrived at the entrance door and pushed it open with all her might. She continued running outside and stopped a few feet ahead of the building, trying to regain her breath. Once her breathing had gotten back to normal, she sighed in relief, opening her eyes and took a look at the isolated town before her.

'_Well, at least it's better than being inside that room,' _she thought. She took a walk toward the town to clear her mind from the haunting images of the corpses she had seen in the mortuary. She didn't know where she was heading but going back wasn't an option, so she kept on walking. Soon, she found herself standing in front of the forest which is located at the east side of the small island.

Haruka smiled at her new discovery and decided to explore it to kill time. The forest had always been her favorite place to hang out. Being around the trees and plants could really put her mind in peace.

When she was walking inside the woods, she saw a little white creature leaping not far in front of her. It didn't take her long to realize that it was a rabbit.

"Hello there, little guy," she smiled at the animal. When it heard Haruka approaching, it turned around and leaped away further into the woods. "Hey, wait!"

Haruka hastily chased after the furry creature. She didn't know why but she was really eager to touch the rabbit and hold it in her arms. She had always been fond of animals, but the animals never seemed to like her much. She once petted a stray cat on the head and got scratched badly on the arm. She never petted anything else after that.

Okay, maybe not. She had infact tried to pet numerous of animals in her neighborhood, but always ended up getting hissed/barked/growled at and chased around by them. She had zero animal pheromone.

Haruka started to pant and her pace was slowing. She had no idea how a rabbit could leap faster than a speed of a running human girl. But she didn't give up. She had her eyes fixed on the animal and still tried to catch up to it in vain, that is, until she tripped on something hard on the ground and fell flat on her face.

"OUCH!" Haruka yelped as she rubbed her face in pain. She slowly stood up and turned around to see what had made her fell, but regretted it as soon as she saw what was lying before her: a dead body.

The brunette's eyes widened as big as 2 tennis balls. She could not find her voice for she was too horrified to speak. Ever so slowly, she took a step back until she felt something beneath her right foot. Taking a glance around her shoulder, her eyes widened even more when she saw another corpse lying on the ground behind her. She turned around and backed away abruptly until her back hit the tree hard. The impact caused the tree to shake a bit and suddenly, something heavy fell on top of her, sending her crashing back on the ground, face-first.

Haruka groaned, pushing the heavy thing off her body and rolled over to her side, only to come face to face with another corpse beside her. She felt her heart stop for a moment, as a wave of nausea took over, and before she knew it, she found herself enveloped with darkness and blacked out.

* * *

At last, another update.  
I'm such a _cool_ writer. Har-har.  
Anyway, thanks for everyone who has bothered reviewing this fic! You guys really made my day!

[Somehow I couldn't stop laughing every time I wrote the word 'Bukchoy' in this chapter. Yeah, that name came out randomly after watching Masterchef Australia on TV.]


	13. The Snakes

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 13**

**The Snakes**

"Ugh..." Haruka groaned, slowly opening her eyes, "where am I?"

"You're at the inn," said a male voice from her left.

The girl snapped her eyes open and quickly sat up, turning to her side to see Hotoka sitting on the chair next to her bed. "Hotoka-sensei?" she called out, "what happened? How did I get here?"

"We found you unconscious in the forest with 3 corpses lying around you. Apparently, those were the corpses that were stolen from the mortuary 2 days ago."

Haruka paled remembering the event that had made her lose consciousness in the first place.

"You must be wondering how we were able to find you," Hotoka continued, "we tried to run after you when you got out of the mortuary, but Mr. Bukchoy tripped on the creaky floorboard on our way out. We had to help him get back on his feet before we continue to chase after you, that's why it took us some time before we managed to go to the forest."

"But... how did you know that I was inside the forest at that time? You didn't even see where I was heading to."

"You'll have to thank Sasori for that. We searched for you everywhere when we got out of the mortuary, but we still couldn't find you. When the sun was almost setting, Sasori suddenly told us to go look in the forest. He was positive that you'd be there because he said that you like spending your time in the forest. Lucky for us, he was right!"

"Oh... I see..." the brunette replied while secretly smiling, happy that her childhood friend took notice at her fondness of the woods. "So, where is he now?"

"He and Kimi went back to the central office to retrieve our bags. They should be here soon, though," the Jonin replied. "At the mean time, you should probably get some more rest. It's already dark here and we still need to continue our mission tomorrow."

"Wait, sensei. Shouldn't we guard the mortuary tonight? I mean, what about the thieves?"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. You've already helped a lot by finding those lost corpses in the forest. Well, even if you did it involuntarily, still, you've made the job a lot easier now."

"Well... If it's okay for you..." Haruka was trying to look as modest as she could. But inside, she was dancing around in joy, knowing that she wouldn't have to hang around the dead bodies tonight.

"Of course it is," Hotoka smiled while ruffling Haruka's brunette hair. "Well, I'll be going now, I have to take Mr. Bukchoy back to the harbor first. I'll see you later." With that, he finally stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Once her sensei had gone out, Haruka looked around her room. It wasn't big like the one in Kimi's house, but it wasn't too small either. It was just the perfect size for her. The paint on the wall looked quite old, but at least it wasn't peeled and covered in wood paneling like the one back in the mortuary. The room was also clean, no spider webs around the ceiling or whatsoever. She wondered how an old inn like this could stay clean knowing that nobody lived in it.

'_Maybe Mr. Bukchoy- pfft, hired a caretaker or something,' _she thought. She got off her bed and walked toward another door inside her room that led to the bathroom. _'Sweet! I have my personal bathroom here! I'd better take a shower to clean myself from the stench of the... the... d-dead bodies.' _

She stepped into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Taking her clothes off, she turned on the shower and began humming some tunes while drenching her body with warm water.

* * *

Sasori cursed under his breath, carrying both his and Haruka's duffle bags back into the inn. The blonde boy had already gone back to the inn with his top speed of 120 feet per second, leaving Sasori behind with 2 bags to carry. He didn't like the fact that Kimi Raikkichi was better than him regarding their rapidity.

After a lot of cursing later, Sasori finally arrived back at the old inn. He trudged his way upstairs to his room and put his bag inside before heading to Haruka's room to drop her duffle there. Stopping at her door, he knocked it impatiently, waiting for her to open it.

"Open up, it's me," he called out but heard no reply from his friend. "I'm coming in."

He turned the knob on the door and pushed it open, stepping inside the room and set Haruka's bag down next to her bed. Without wasting another moment, he quickly walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

* * *

After finishing her shower and dressing up in her usual attire, Haruka plopped down on her bed to take another rest. But just as she was about to close her eyes, she heard a hissing noise from under her bed.

She sat up frantically to see where the noise was coming from. "H-hello? Is anyone there?" she called out. She heard the same hissing sound again and turned her gaze down at her bed. "O-okay, this is not funny at all..."

She inched closer to the edge of the bed and carefully crouched down to the ground to see what was under it. She gasped in shock when she saw the thing that was slithering under the bed: a snake.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" screamed Haruka at the top of her lungs. She leaped away from her bed and put a hand on her chest to steady her heartbeat. Then she heard another hissing noise coming from behind her. Turning around, her eyes widened as she saw another snake-no, _two_ other snakes coming from under her desk. "Oh... my... GOOOOOOOOOODDDDD! AAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Haruka! What's going on in there?" came Sasori's voice from outside her room.

Haruka realized that her door was locked. She wanted to open it but more snakes were coming out from under each furniture in her room and were heading towards her. Soon enough, Haruka found herself surrounded by them, helplessly trying to get away from them. "S-Sasori..." she whimpered meekly, legs already trembling from the fear of being eaten by the slithering creatures around her. Closing her eyes, she gathered all her courage and shouted, "SASORI! HELP ME!"

As soon as she yelled out those words, her door was suddenly kicked open by her red-headed friend. "Haruka!"

The girl turned at him with watery eyes, unable to move an inch from her current position due to the snakes around her. Sasori quickly took his shurikens out of his leg holster and threw it right at the snakes, killing them in instance. He then ran towards his childhood friend who was now kneeling on the ground. "Haruka, what happened? How did these snakes get in here?"

"I don't know," Haruka sobbed, rubbing the tears in her eyes, "they just came out of nowhere...!"

Sasori grunted loudly, "I knew there's something wrong about this place. We'd better go tell Hotoka-sensei about this."

The two of them got back on their feet and headed downstairs. But as soon as they got to the staircase, they were stopped by their blond friend. "Haruka and Aka-no-baka should not go downstairs!"

"What?"

"Why not, Kimi-kun?"

"Because," Kimi Raikkichi panted slightly, "there are snakes all over the living room!"

"WHAT?" Haruka and Sasori exclaimed in unison.

"B-but, how can they?"

"Kimi Raikkichi doesn't know either! Kimi Raikkichi was doing the dishes but then... - Haruka-chan, look out!" the blond boy suddenly pulled Haruka by the arm just in time before she got bitten by a snake behind her. "That was a close one!"

"W-w-whoa! Thanks for that, Kimi-kun," Haruka said, "where did that big snake come from anyway?"

"There is more coming from the windows," Sasori warned as the three of them turned their heads toward the windows at the corridor.

"Holy Raikkichi!"

"T-there are snakes everywhere! W-what should we do now? We're surrounded!"

"Damn it," Sasori cursed under his breath, taking out his scroll from his pocket. "We have no choice but to fight them."

"But there's too many of them!"

"I know," Sasori turned at his brown haired friend. "That's why you must get out of here and tell Hotoka-sensei about this, and fast."

"What?"

"You heard me," Sasori said as he summoned Karasu from his scroll. "Raikkichi and I are going to create an opening for you. When I say 'go', you have to jump out of the window as fast as you can, understood?"

Haruka looked at her childhood friend in disbelief, "But I can't! Kimi-kun should do it! He can run faster than I can, he'll reach Hotoka-sensei in no time!"

"No, Haruka-chan! Kimi Raikkichi has a bad night vision and this island hardly has any electricity in it! Kimi Raikkichi can't run outside in the dark!" the blonde boy retorted, eyes still fixed on the snakes approaching them. "Aka-no-baka is right. Haruka-chan should run out of this building as soon as Aka-no-baka and Kimi Raikkichi move the snakes out of the way for Haruka-chan!"

"But I... can't run as fast as you guys... what if I... don't make it in time?" Haruka trailed off quietly. She felt a mixture of fear and doubt churning in her stomach, making her unable to think clearly. "I can't... I can't do this..." So many thoughts were spinning in her head. What if she failed to go to the mortuary in time? What if her fear of being in the darkness alone got the better of her and she started cowering instead of running toward her direction and finding her sensei? What if-

"You can do it," Sasori cut her short, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I believe in you"

Haruka snapped her head up and looked at Sasori with wide eyes. She never knew those words of encouragement would ever come out of Sasori's mouth, but she knew that they were the only thing that could erase all the doubt she had inside her heart.

"KIMI RAIKKICHI BELIEVES IN HARUKA-CHAN TOO!" came a loud voice from her left.

Haruka smiled at both of her friends before finally saying, "Alright then."

Sasori glanced at Kimi Raikkichi and nodded at him. "Ready, Raikkichi?"

"Ready!"

"On the count of three. One... two..."

"KOSOKU NO JUTSU!" Kimi Raikkichi wauled, focusing his chakra on his feet and began running around the room in a very fast motion, averting the snakes' attention from his teammates.

Sasori used his puppet to tackle the rest of the snakes off the window sill. He turned to his childhood friend and yelled, "Now, Haruka!"

Haruka nodded and ran to the window - as fast as she could - and jumped out of it, landing on the ground safely and proceeded on dashing to where her sensei was - the mortuary.

She flitted pass the tall buildings and trees, so fast that her sides were beginning to ache. But she did not care and kept her pace constant. Unfortunately, the sky suddenly darkened as the black clouds started floating around the moon and blocking it from view - the only source of light she had to help her see in the darkness.

"Darn it, it's even harder to look at the road now!" Haruka grumbled, stopping at her track. She glanced at a building next to her and an idea immediately popped in her mind. "I think I know just what to do."

Focusing her chakra on her feet, she scurried toward the building and started running up the wall until she reached the top. Everything looked clearer on the roof; Haruka could easily spot the mortuary not far in front of her. She smiled to herself before leaping to another rooftop, careful not to stumble on the slippery surface.

Bounding with great lithe from building to building, tree to tree, Haruka finally landed a few meters away from the mortuary. She could make out a black figure standing in front of the mortuary door. Her face lit up and she fastened her pace, calling out for his sensei. "Hotoka-sensei!"

The black-haired jonin turned his gaze at her, "Haruka?" he asked as he saw his pupil halting in front of him, panting heavily. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Sensei... Sasori... and Kimi-kun... the snakes... inn... your help..."

"Wow wow, slow down there, Haruka. I can't understand what you are saying."

Haruka took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves, before saying, "Hotoka-sensei, there are big snakes all over the inn! I don't know where they came from and I don't know how that is possible, but anyway, Sasori and Kimi-kun are in trouble! They need your help right away!"

"Snakes? In the inn?"

"Yes!"

"Oh boy," Hotoka scratched his head, "this mission turns out harder than I thought it would be."

"I know, what should we do now, sensei?"

Hotoka didn't answer; instead he suddenly bit his thumb until it bled - much to Haruka's surprise - and made a quick hand seal Haruka had never seen before, yelling out: "_**KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"**_

A puff of smoke emanated from below his palm. As the smoke cleared up, Haruka could see 5 animal figures standing between her and her sensei. Her eyes widened at this.

"Haruka, meet my trusty wolf-pack; Kiri, Hide, Shiki, Mocchi, and Bu," Hotoka said.

Haruka blinked her eyes at the 5 grey wolves before her, "H-hello..."

"Hey there little girl," the one in the middle answered her.

Haruka jumped back in surprise, "Y-y-you can talk?"

"Well duh," the other one said.

"But... how is that possible?"

"I'll explain it to you later. Right now we have more important things to worry about," Hotoka smiled at his shocked pupil. "Shiki, you stay here with Haruka. Help her guard the mortuary in case the thieves decide to barge in, okay?"

"Roger that!" the wolf in the middle answered.

"But I wanna help her too!" The smallest wolf - which was Bu - whined.

"You'll get your turn. Right now, we need you to help my other pupils back at the inn," Hotoka said. "C'mon. We've got no time to lose. Let's go!"

Hotoka sprinted back to the inn along with his 4 wolves, leaping onto the building and disappearing into the dark night. Haruka stared at their retreating figures, silently praying for everything to be alright.

"Don't worry, kid. Your friends will be safe in no time," Shiki reassured her, patting Haruka's foot with his own.

"Yeah..." Haruka stared down at him and smiled, "I really hope they will."

* * *

Phew, another slow update.  
Sorry...! Please bear with me, people.

Thanks a lot for those who have reviewed! ^^ I love you all so much.

(OMG Chapter 13 on a Halloween Day! Happy halloween everyone!)


	14. The Thief

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 14**

**The Thief**

"Are you alright, kid? You seem a bit pale," Shiki - one of Hotoka's wolves - asked as he stared up at Haruka's face.

"H-huh? Oh, no I'm fine..." Haruka lied, forcing out a smile - which came out more like a grimace - to make her words appear believable. "Really, I am."

Shiki flashed her a suspicious look, obviously not believing her, but decided to drop the subject and continued to monitor the area instead.

Haruka stared at the dark path in front of her with uneasiness. And even though she was standing in front of the mortuary, her mind was wandering elsewhere. She was worried about her teammates and sensei. She knew Hotoka would be more than able to finish all the snakes there and rescue her friends, but that's not the only thing that was bothering her mind right now.

This was the first time she lingered outside in the middle of the darkness without Sasori beside her. Ever since she was little, she had always been together with her red-headed friend whenever they went on an adventure together, especially at eerie places like this. She had always had an arm to cling on with Sasori by her side. They even slept on the same bed whenever she was having a sleepover at his house.

'Too bad we had to stop sleeping together when we turned 8,' Haruka thought, remembering the time when Sasori refused to let her sleep with him a week after his 8th birthday. 'Well, not like I want to sleep with him or anything! That would be totally gross!' she added, shaking her head furiously at the thought.

"Is something the matter?"

"NOTHING!" she answered quickly at Shiki's sudden question. "I was just... thinking about something, that's all."

Shiki was about to reply when he heard a hissing noise coming from the bushes at the left side of the mortuary. He took a defensive stance while growling at the source of the noise.

"Show yourself!" he barked loudly.

It needn't be told twice for the thing came out of its hiding spot as soon as it heard Shiki's voice.

Haruka had expected it to be a snake, but instead she saw a tall pale man with long black hair standing there before her. His eyes were bright yellow and his tongue was very long. He resembled a snake in so many ways, Haruka couldn't help but to shudder in fright.

"Hello there," the man said, which came out more like a hiss to Haruka's ears. "I didn't expect to find a little girl playing with her dog here at the mortuary in the middle of the night."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Shiki asked.

"I've heard that question so many times," the guy chuckled. "Have you got no other thing to ask me? Perhaps about my day, or how I have been, or-"

"Answer the question!"

The guy stopped laughing as he locked his sharp sallow eyes with Shiki's. "This is one of the things why I'd hate to have dogs as pets," he said. "They talk too much."

The pale man then did something Haruka would have never thought he would - he crouched down and opened his mouth wide, letting countless snakes slither out of it. Haruka felt herself gagging at the nasty view.

The man stood up when all the snakes were out of his throat. He pointed his long bony finger at Haruka and Shiki and said, "Get them."

The snakes promptly leaped at both Haruka and Shiki faster than what the brunette girl had expected. Lucky for her Shiki's reflex was faster than hers and he managed to tackle one snake that almost had a bite on her head.

"Don't just gawk around, kid!" Shiki yelled at Haruka who was still frozen on her spot. "Move!"

Haruka snapped out of her stupefaction and swiftly jumped out of the way just in time to avoid more snakes which had leapt at her. "Oh My God, that was a close one!" she gasped, landing a few feet away from the snakes. She wasted no time on making a hand seal, summoning her vine whip. "Tsuru Kusa no Jutsu!"

Gripping the whip tightly with one hand, she launched it at the snakes before her, cutting them to pieces.

"Not bad..." the mysterious man said. "Well, playtime's over, now it's time for the real fun."

Haruka wondered what he had meant by that, but she instantly got her answer as she saw the remaining snakes opened their mouths wide, extending Kusanagi-like blades from their throats.

"Holy...!" Haruka had no time to be flabbergasted. By the time she let her whip down, the snakes abruptly charged at her. She jumped out of the way but the blades were apparently long enough to reach her and stab her right on the right arm. "AGH!"

"Haruka!" Shiki barked. He attempted to help her but was blocked by the other snakes that were slithering around him. "Damn!"

"Ugh," Haruka let go of her vine whip and reached for her kunai in her leg holster. She grabbed it with her uninjured arm and stabbed the snakes that were still dangling on her right arm. The snakes hissed in pain before wriggling off her body and landed on the ground, dead. She dropped the kunai and clutched her right arm in pain, staggering backward to avoid the snakes that were slithering towards her.

'_What should I do,_' she thought in panic. _'I can't use my vine whip anymore with my arm bleeding like this.' _She glanced at Shiki who was trying his best to kill the snakes around him. 'And I definitely can't ask for Shiki's help right now...!'

Another snake bounded forward and Haruka could do nothing other than jumping away from it. She felt more blood trickling down her wounds as her feet landed back on the ground. "Ow," she whimpered. Her head was starting to feel dizzy from all the blood lost.

"HARUKA, LOOK OUT!" she heard Shiki yelled out. Haruka focused her attention back on the battlefield and was shocked to see a snake suddenly flung towards her. She had no time to dodge the attack. Closing her eyes, she braced herself for the worst. She waited for the impact to come, but unfortunately, it never did. Opening her eyes, she saw that the snake was lying on the ground with a white rabbit standing upon its dead body.

"What the..." Haruka stared at the rabbit in wide eyes.

The white creature hopped towards her, stopping right in front of her sitting form. It stared at Haruka's bleeding arm, eyes oddly filled with concern. It took Haruka a while to realize that the rabbit was actually the same one she was chasing in the wood earlier at noon.

"You are the little rabbit I saw this afternoon," Haruka said. "Why are you here? And why are you helping me?"

The rabbit didn't give a reply and continued to stare at Haruka for a while. Its ears suddenly perked up before it turned around to stomp its legs on the snake that was crawling behind it. The snake let out a painful hiss before ending up dead like the last snake that the rabbit had stomped onto earlier.

"Whoa," Haruka stared at the rabbit in amazement. It turned to look at Haruka and smiled. Haruka gladly smiled back at her new found truce.

'_Wait a minute,'_ she thought._ 'Rabbits can't smile... can it?' _she almost got lost in her thoughts when she noticed that the tall pale man was no longer in sight. _'Where did he go?'_

Haruka stood up wobbly, eyes scanning her surroundings, searching for the villain who had caused all this mess. She looked at the Mortuary entrance and gasped when she saw that the door was already opened. _'No!'_ she used all the strength she had left to run inside the building while Shiki and the white rabbit were still fighting against the remaining snakes outside.

Haruka stopped walking as she got into the dark building. Her paranoid mind got the better of her and she started trembling with fear.

'_I can't,'_ she thought sadly. _'I'm too afraid to walk in this dark m-m-mortuary. I'm too afraid to even do anything right.'_

'_No you're not,'_

Haruka jumped at the familiar voice in her head. _'S-Sasori?'_

'_You can do it,' _she heard the voice once again. _'I believe in you.'_

'_I believe in you.'_

'_I believe in you.'_

'_I believe in you.'_

Haruka closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Sasori's encouraging words kept echoing in her mind. She had no idea where they came from and why they were inside her mind all of the sudden, but that was all she needed to keep on going.

She pulled her headband off her hair and tied it around her right upper arm. It didn't help much but at least it reduced her pain a bit.

'_Well... here I go...!'_ she focused her chakra on her feet and started running deeper into the mortuary.

She quickly halted as she spotted a giant steel door not far in front of her. Someone was walking out of it, carrying a person on their back. Haruka squinted her eyes to get a better view of the figure. A pair of glowing yellow eyes stared back at her and she knew that it was the pale man from before.

"Decided to chase after me, eh?" he asked, the corner of his mouth twisting into a nasty smirk.

"What are you doing with that body?" Haruka bellowed, her voice sounded braver than she thought it would.

"I'm going to experiment with it, of course," the man replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"What do you mean by experiment? That's a human body you're holding! Not an animal's!"

He chuckled darkly. "You don't think I would use an _animal's_ body to replace my own, do you, little girl?"

Haruka went bug-eyed at him. "Y-you... what...?"

"This body wouldn't stay young for long," he said, pointing at his skinny face. "I would need a lot of new bodies to replace this one soon before it starts to rot."

Haruka couldn't believe what she was hearing. _'Is this man actually going to transfer his __**soul**__ into another body? That just can't be...'_

"Well, enough with the chit-chat. I have to go now," the man said, walking pass Haruka leisurely.

"No...! You can't go! I won't let- **AKH**!" Haruka cried in pain as she felt the man's kunai piercing through her right leg.

The long-haired thief smirked down at her, taking pleasure on seeing her writhing form. "You're lucky I decided to you live," he said. "Good bye, little girl."

Haruka watched helplessly as the man made his way out of the room. Her vision was beginning to blur. With one trembling hand, she pulled the kunai out of her leg, screaming in pain as she did so. The last thing she heard before falling unconscious were Sasori's words.

'_You can do it. I believe in you.'_

'_I'm sorry, Sasori,'_ Haruka thought, eyes drooping closed slowly. _'I'm just... not strong enough..."_

And she finally found herself falling into the cold darkness.

* * *

"When will Haruka-chan wake up?" Haruka heard a familiar voice asked worriedly. "It's been a whole day. Will Haruka-chan be okay?"

"Don't worry," another voice said. "I've treated her injuries. She didn't lose too much blood so she should be just fine."

"Hooray! Kimi Raikichi is glad!"

Haruka whimpered slightly, opening her eyes to see Kimi Raikkichi and Hotoka sitting beside her.

"HARUKA-CHAN!" Kimi Raikkichi exclaimed happily. "Haruka-chan is awake!"

"W-where am I...?" the brunette girl asked groggily, sitting up on the bed.

"You're in your room," Hotoka answered. "We found you unconscious inside the mortuary and brought you here to treat your wounds. It's a good thing the injuries weren't serious."

"What about the thief? Did he manage to escape?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Hotoka said. "By the time I arrived at the scene, he was already gone."

"Oh," Haruka whispered meekly. She looked around her and noticed that her childhood friend was no where insight. "Where's... where's Sasori, by the way?"

"He just got to his room, I told him to rest since he had been up all day here waiting for you to wake up."

Haruka beamed at her sensei's words. "He did...?"

"Oh yes!" Kimi Raikkichi said. "Even after Kimi Raikkichi woke up from Kimi Raikkichi's nap, Aka-no-baka was still here!"

"Wait a minute, how long have I been out exactly?" Haruka asked.

"One day!"

"Oh."

"Sasori was really worried about you," Hotoka smiled. "I'd better go tell him that you're awake now."

"No!" Haruka interjected. "Let him rest. You can tell him tomorrow when he's awake."

"Alright then, whatever you say," Hotoka said, patting on Haruka's head. "Rest well. We've still got a long day tomorrow."

"Hai."

Hotoka then went out of the room with Kimi Raikkichi following behind him.

"Get well soon Haruka-chan!" Kimi Raikkichi said as he turned off the light and closed the door behind him.

Haruka laid back down on her bed after her teammates went out of her room. She closed her eyes to go back to sleep again but an image of the thief and his snakes suddenly popped back in her mind. She snapped her eyes open and quickly sat up on her bed.

_'I don't think I'd be able to sleep tonight,'_ she thought, trying to get rid of the images in her mind.

She slid the bedcover off her and slowly got of her bed, careful not to hurt her injured leg. She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. 'What should I do now?'

Her eyes drifted to the door that was located right across from her room. Tiptoeing her way towards it, she slid the door open and saw her red-headed friend sleeping soundly on his bed inside. She deliberately made her way inside, closing the door as softly as possible, not wanting to wake her friend up.

Approaching the bed, she examined Sasori's sleeping face, making sure he was really asleep before proceeding to go to the other side of the bed and sat on it.

_'Well, I'm sure he wouldn't mind having me sleep here for the night,'_ she thought hopefully as she slid her body inside the cover, snuggling closer to Sasori's body. _'It's just for one night.'_

She let her eyes droop slowly before drifting off to a peaceful slumber with her childhood friend right beside her.

* * *

Thanks for everyone who has reviewed! ^_^ You really made my awesome day!

_[[btw, Happy super belated birthday, Sasori and Haruka!]]_


	15. Sasori's Dreams

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.  
****WARNING : Fluffs, flashbacks, and Sasoriness (xD)**

**Chapter 15**

**Sasori's Dreams**

A cool wind blew against Sasori's face, tickling his eyelids and waking him up from his deep slumber. He opened his eyes gently to come face to face with his sleeping childhood friend. '_What the...'_ he thought in surprise. He realized that he had been hugging her sleeping form all along, rather closely he might add. Their foreheads were touching and he could feel her breath on his face. Noticing that their lips were only centimeters apart, he felt his face turn red and his body froze in shock.

'_How did she end up__ here __i__n my bed?'_ he thought. _'And why on earth are we placed in such a... provocative position...?'_

He moved his left arm off Haruka's body and turned his face away from hers as slowly as possible, afraid of waking her up. Haruka then did something that surprised him - she snuggled closer to his body and rested her forehead on the crook of his neck.

Sasori immediately froze - again. He felt the brunette's steady breathing on his neck and gulped down nervously. _'This is my bed. I was here first, and then she appeared beside me out of nowhere. Now she's sleeping soundly while I'm trapped in this position with my eyes wide awake. How does she expect me to go back to sleep with her being so close to me like this?'_ he thought, gazing down at Haruka's sleeping face. _'Not to mention her breathing is really... enticing.'_ He shuddered at the feeling.

'_Damn. __Hold your thoughts, Sasori. This is Haruka you're talking about,' _he mentally slapped himself. '_There's only one thing left to do.'_

He gently shook Haruka's body to wake her up. "Haruka. Haruka, wake up."

"Mmm...?"

"Wake up. I told you not to sleep with me, didn't I?"

Haruka opened her eyes lazyly and looked up at her friend. "Good morning, Sasori."

"Good morning your brain. It's practically still midnight and I want to go back to sleep."

"Then sleep," she added drowsily before closing her eyes.

"What- hey, wake up! You can't go back to sleep! Sleep in your own bed!"

"I don't wanna..." she replied softly. "...It feels safer to sleep here with you."

Sasori stopped talking as soon as he heard those words. He then felt Haruka's breathing getting steady again, indicating that she was back to sleep. He looked down at Haruka's bandaged arm, reconsidering his idea to push her off the bed.

'_Lucky you're injured,'_ he thought, slowly closing his eyes. _'I guess I'll let you sleep here for tonight.'_

He wrapped his left arm around Haruka's body and made himself comfortable before letting himself doze off to dreamland.

* * *

_Dreams_

* * *

"Sasori..."

The five-year-old puppeteer groaned slightly, pulling the cover up to his face and burying himself under it.

"Sasori... Wake up..."

The voice came again and Sasori had no choice but to move the bed cover and opened his eyes. Right next to his bed stood his little brunette friend. She was clutching onto his sheet, staring at him with big pleading eyes.

"What is it?" Sasori asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"Can I sleep with you?"

"Excuse me?" he quickly sat up and turned to his right to face his friend.

"I had a nightmare and I can't go back to sleep," Haruka said.

Sasori rolled his eyes. "It was only a bad dream, Haruka. What are you, five?"

"I _am_ five," she pouted. "And you are too."

Sasori mentally slapped his head for failing at his sarcasm. He stared at Haruka's face and noticed that she was in the verge of tears. _'If I tell her to get lost, Chiyo baa-sama will surely be mad at me,'_ he thought. He then nodded at Haruka's request and motioned her to go lie beside him.

"Thanks, Sasori!" Haruka beamed at him. She hurriedly got inside the cover and made herself comfortable. "Good night."

Sasori didn't bother giving a reply. He turned his body to the other side so he was facing away from Haruka and closed his eyes. "Don't wet the bed."

Sasori felt Haruka hit him on the back. "Of course I won't!"

* * *

The sound of the blaring thunderstorm outside woke Sasori up from his deep slumber. Groaning in annoyance, he turned to his other side and sinked deeper into the warmth of his bed cover. But as he was about to fall asleep, he heard a sound of someone sobbing. Opening his eyes, he saw that Haruka was crying in her sleep.

He moved closer to her and shook her body gently. "Haruka, Haruka wake up..."

As soon as his hand made contact with her, Haruka's eyes suddenly snapped open. She looked up at Sasori, eyes glistening with tears. "S-Sasori..."

"Haruka, what's wrong?"

"I..." she paused to wipe her tears away. "I had another nightmare..."

"What was it about?" Sasori asked, suddenly took an interest in his friend's problem knowing that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep soon enough.

"I'm not sure... I didn't see anything there. I could only hear people screaming throughout the entire dream."

"Screaming?"

"Y-yeah, it's like they got hurt by bad guys and they couldn't do anything to save themselves."

"Oh," Sasori said, a bit confused of Haruka's explanation. "And now you're crying because...?"

"I'm not sure why either," Haruka sniffed. "I think hearing those people screaming out in pain made me really scared." She whispered out. "I could feel their pain too... somehow."

More tears came streaming down her cheeks. She buried her face in her hands and continued sobbing.

Sasori could only stare at his friend, not knowing what to do. He then reached his hand out to grab Haruka's shoulder and pulled her close to him so that her head was resting below his chin. "Don't cry," he said. "I really hate it when you cry."

His words didn't seem to cease Haruka's sadness. She was still sobbing, her little hands clutching onto his shirt. Sasori moved his hand to Haruka's face and tilted her head up to face him.

"It's alright. Those bad guys can't hurt you here," he cooed. "I'll protect you."

"R-Really?"

"Really."

"But... you're just a kid... you can't win against all those big bad people."

Sasori's left eye twitched hearing Haruka's response. _'Can't you be annoying somewhere else?_' he thought before saying, "I can beat them."

"No you can't."

"Yes I can."

"No you can't. You're just a little kid. A little kid who plays with weird and scary puppets everyday."

Another twitch. "Do you want me to protect you or not?"

"No, it's okay. You don't need to protect me," Haruka replied, finally stopped crying. Sasori was about to push her off his bed when he heard her said, "I'd rather get hurt myself than to have you hurt because of me."

The red-head was a bit startled to hear that. One minute she was being a paranoid scardy cat and now she told him that felt more concerned about his safety than her own. _'What exactly does she want?'_ his five-year-old brain wondered.

"Do you think you can go back to sleep now?" Sasori changed the subject, not wanting to think any further.

Haruka nodded as she snuggled closely to Sasori's chest.

"Don't wake me up till morning," he mumbled lazily, putting his arm around Haruka's body and closing his eyes.

"Okay," he heard his brunette friend replied. "Good night Sasori. And thank you."

* * *

The ten-year-old Sasori sat on his windowsill, eyes staring out at the deserted street of Suna. He saw a couple of kids running by the road chasing each other. They were laughing heartily as they played together. Sasori's grandmother had once suggested him to join those kids but he always declined.

'_I have better things to do than to play with them,'_ he thought.

Sasori had always kept everything to himself. He didn't socialize much at school, never letting anyone get too close to him and calling everyone he knew as mere acquaintance rather than friend. Despite his cool nature, he managed to - involuntarily - get himself many admirers. His almost perfect grades at school only made him more popular than he already was. He detested the attentions that he was receiving, especially from his female 'acquaintances'. But everything he did only seemed to gain him more popularity by the day.

After an hour of sitting and staring outside the window, he got up from his seat and went to plop down on his bed. His hands reached under one of his pillows and took out two pictures from it. One was the picture of his late parents which his grandmother had given to him when he was 3 years old. The other one was a picture of him and Haruka on his last year's birthday. Haruka was clinging on his arm, wearing a big bright smile on her face. Sasori's face looked indifferent as always. His lips formed a small smile though, but that was only noticeable if one looked really closely at the picture.

'_Stop thinking about her,_' Sasori thought, putting the pictures back under his pillow. _'It's only been 3 days.'_

The reason for his current boredom is because Haruka had gone out of town for one week. Sasori had spent his days locking himself in his room and inventing new puppets. But that wasn't enough to make him occupied for three whole days, let alone one week.

"I miss her..." he mumbled quietly. Realizing what he had just said, he quickly slapped a hand to his mouth, eyes widening in shock. "I did _not_ just say that."

But Sasori knew he couldn't deny himself any longer. He missed his only friend so much that he couldn't get her out of his mind for just five minutes. His days never seemed to get boring with her around. She always managed to make his days more interesting and enjoyable. Without her, everything just seemed so dull and lifeless.

'_What am I, love-sick?'_ Sasori thought sarcastically. He was immediately reminded of his birthday last year, when Haruka appeared next to his bed as he woke up in the morning and glomped him to death, yelling : "Happy Birthday, Sasori! I love you!"

He swore his face got ten times redder than his hair at her words.

He couldn't forget that event even until now. Every time he remembered about it, he would always slap himself on the face to prevent himself from getting red all over again.

'_Stupid. It's not like she meant to say those words anyway,_' he mentally said. Rolling on his side, he slowly closed his eyes and decided to take a nap, hoping that it would at least make the time pass by faster, so that he could see his friend's cheerful face as soon as he woke up.

* * *

"Aren't you happy that I'm finally back?"

"No."

Haruka puffed her cheeks angrily at Sasori's cruel response. "You're lying."

"Am not."

"Well...!" she paused, thinking of what to say next. "I'm not happy to see you either!"

"Then the feeling's mutual."

"You're so mean, Sasori! Don't you know how much I missed you?" Haruka playfully punched her friend on the arm. "I miss you so much, I could kiss you!"

Sasori's cheeks flared at this. "That's gross. Get away from me."

Haruka pouted at him. It was suddenly replaced by a huge smile. "Ah, I almost forgot! I've got something important that I want to show you!"

"What is it?"

"It's in my bag; you have to come closer to take a look at it."

Sasori approached her, eyes locked with her small handbag. "What do you want to -"

By the time he was close enough, Haruka quickly planted a kiss on his cheek before running out of the house, laughing her heart out. "I've gotta go unpack now! See you later Sasori!"

The red-head stood on the spot, unmoving. His eyes stared blankly at the place where his brunette friend had been previously. Moving his palm on his kissed cheek, he rubbed it slowly. _'Stupid Haruka. She wil pay for doing that out of the blue,'_ A small smile crept onto his face. _'__But I have to admit, t__hat__ just__ made my one-week of waiting __for her __completely worthwhile.'_

* * *

_End of dreams_

* * *

"Sasori... wake up... it's already 8 o'clock..."

Sasori slowly opened his eyes, letting the sunray seep through his eyelids. He squinted a bit, trying to adjust to the blinding light from his window. Once he got his eyes adjusted, he opened them fully and saw Haruka standing right next to his bed with a big grin on her face.

"Good morning, sunshine! It's time to wake up!"

Sasori grumbled and sat up on his bed, rubbing his messy hair tiredly. His head was still a bit engrossed with all the dreams he had had last night. He had no idea why he suddenly dreamed of some of the moments he had spent with Haruka when they were little.

"C'mon, wash your face and let's go downstairs to get some breakfast!"

He merely nodded as he walked to the bathroom to wash his face. Once he was done, he walked back to the room to meet up with the smiling brunette. "Why do you keep grinning like that? It's creeping me out," he said.

Haruka shook her head and walked out of the room with Sasori following behind her. "I'm just happy that you let me sleep with you last night!" she said. "I had a very good sleep thanks to you!"

Sasori's mind wandered back to last night's event and his cheeks flushed a bit when he remembered waking up with Haruka's sleeping face a mere centimeter apart from his own. He shook his head frantically, trying to clear his head. _'Well, I guess that part __**wasn't**__ a dream after all.'_

* * *

_Ho-ho-ho!  
_Another update!  
How was it, people? Was it confusing? A bit too fluffy? Too much flashbacks? Well, DEAL WITH IT! MUAHAHA *gets hit by a brick*

Thanks again for everyone who has reviewed this fic! I love you guys more than Sasori! ^^

... on a second thought, I still love him better.


	16. The White Rabbit

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 16**

**The White Rabbit**

"Hotoka-sensei should know better than to assign Sasori on a lunch-cooking mission," Haruka sighed, scrubbing the counter that was covered with mixture of flour and alphabet soup. "I can't believe that silly puppeteer actually tried to mix soup and flour together. I really need to teach him how to cook after we finish this mission."

Dipping the scrubbing brush in the bucket of water, Haruka picked it up again and began scrubbing the dirty floor. "I should be in bed right now instead of cleaning up this mess," she grunted. "Didn't Sasori realize that I'm still injured? Sheesh!" she grabbed the bucket and walked out to the back door to refill it with clean water.

"Does Haruka-chan need a hand?"

Startled to hear the sudden voice, Haruka dropped the bucket that she was holding, causing the dirty water in it to splatter all over the kitchen. "Oh no!"

"Haruka-chan!" Kimi Raikkichi suddenly appeared right beside her. "What happened? Why did Haruka-chan drop the bucket?"

"I didn't drop it on purpose, Kimi-kun."

"Oh."

Haruka sighed again before bending down to pick the bucket and proceeded on walking out of the room, ignoring the mess she had made. But when her feet made contact with the wet floor below her, she accidentally slipped on it and lost her balance. "Aaaiiieeee!"

"HARUKA-CHAN!" the blonde boy darted to her side and caught her just in time before she hit the floor. But due to his quick movement, he also slipped on the puddle and fell on the ground, bringing Haruka down with him.

"OUCH!" they both yelled in unison.

"Haruka-chan! Kimi Raikkichi is so sorry! Is Haruka-chan alright?" the hyperactive boy asked worriedly, staring at Haruka who was laying down beneath him.

"Y-yeah, I'm alright..." Haruka forced herself to smile despite the pain that she was feeling on her back. It was then she noticed the position they were in. Kimi's body was hovering about hers in a crouching position, his hands placed next to her head, and their faces were only inches apart. Haruka felt her face turned red at the realization.

"Haruka-chan's face is all red! Is Haruka-chan really okay?" Kimi asked again, putting his right palm on the brunette's forehead.

Haruka only blushed deeper at this before pushing him away gently so she could sit on the floor. She was sure that her clothes were wet with the dirty water from the floor, but she didn't care. She was still a bit shocked about what had happened a few seconds ago.

"I-I need to go fill the bucket now!" Haruka squeaked, grabbing the bucket and rushing out to the backyard, searching for the water hose. She looked around frantically, looking for the hose as if her life depended on it. "Agh! Where is that friggin thing when you need- AAAH!" she suddenly felt her back being splashed by something wet. Turning around, she saw Kimi Raikkichi holding the hose in his hands, aiming it at her.

"Hahaha! Kimi Raikkichi thinks Haruka-chan might need a shower, so Kimi Raikkichi decides to help her with that!" the blonde laughed.

Haruka couldn't help but to smile back at her blonde friend. "You'll pay for that!" she ran toward him only to have her face getting sprayed with water again. "Hey, no fair!"

"Hahaha! Kimi Raikkichi has the power!"

"Hey Kimi, what's that behind you?"

"Eh? What is it- hey!"

Haruka took the opportunity to snatch the hose from Kimi's wrath and sprayed the water to his face.

"HARUKA-CHAN!" the blonde wauled, covering his head with his arms. "Haruka-chan is getting Kimi Raikkichi all wet!"

"It's a payback for what you did to me!" Haruka laughed heartily. It didn't take long for Kimi Raikkichi to join her. They chased each other around, trying to get one another more wet than they already were. When they decided they had had enough, they both sat down on the ground, trying to catch their breath.

"By the way, Kimi-kun. .." Haruka started after regaining her composure. "Can I ask you something?"

Kimi tilted his head at her. "What is it?"

"Why do you keep talking in third person's point of view?"

"Eh?" the blonde raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Kimi Raikkichi doesn't know. Kimi Raikkichi has always done that since Kimi Raikkichi was little."

"Have you ever considered... changing the way you talk?" Haruka asked again, trying to sound as polite as possible. "You know, like maybe calling yourself 'I' or 'me' instead of 'Kimi Raikkichi' all the time?"

Kimi seemed to be lost in thought again as he gazed upward, his hand cupping his chin in a thinking gesture. "Kimi Raikkichi has never tried that before."

"Well, then try it!" the brunette exclaimed. "Let's try it now!" she went to turn off the hose before walking up to her friend. "Hi Kimi-kun, how are you today?"

"Kimi Raikkichi is f-"

"No no no! It's supposed to be 'I'm', not 'Kimi Raikkichi'!" Haruka said, shaking her head. "Let's try that again. Hi Kimi-kun, how are you today?"

Kimi's face looked a bit troubled. "Kimi Rai-... um, I... I'm fine, Haruka-chan," he answered, fists curled beside him. "How is Haru- er... how are you today?"

"I'm fine, thank you for asking!" Haruka smiled triumphantly to herself. "Let's try it again! Kimi-kun, what do you like to do on your spare time?"

The blue-eyed boy gulped down nervously before answering, "...I like to... play with K-K-my dog and my family."

"Good!" Haruka clapped her hands. "Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

Kimi shook his head.

"Do you think you can start speaking like that from now on?"

"Yes! I think Kimi Raikkichi can do it!"

Haruka immediately slapped her forehead at this. "Well... let's just go clean the mess we made before Hotoka-sensei and Sasori come back, okay?"

With a nod, the blonde followed his companion inside, holding a bucket of water in his hands. "Does Haruka-chan not like the way Kimi Raikkichi talks?" he suddenly asked.

"No, it's not that. I'm fine with the way you talk,"Haruka smiled at him. "It's just that other people might not think the same as I do."

"Well, if Haruka-chan is fine with it, then Kimi Raikkichi is fine with it too," he said. "Because Haruka-chan's thoughts matter to Kimi Raikkichi the most."

Haruka looked at him, a bit surprised of what he had just said. "Why does my thoughts matter that much to you?"

"I don't know, they just do," he shrugged.

"Ah, I see," she responded, looking at the floor below her. "Wait a minute, did you just talk in first person?"

"Huh? What does Haruka-chan mean?"

She offered him a nervous laugh, "Nevermind, Kimi-kun. Forget I said anything."

* * *

Sasori grumbled under his breath, carrying the 7th corpse back inside the mortuary and putting it inside the one of the glass tubes. He then walked out of the building and locked the door behind him.

"Good job, Sasori. Hopefully that corpse is the last one we'll ever find," Hotoka said, staring down at the scowling red-head.

"I could care less about finding the corpse, sensei. I'm more interested in finding the thief than the dead bodies he had stolen."

"True. I'm thinking of the same thing. That's why I'm going to search for the thief tonight."

"Tonight? Why must you wait for tonight? Why not do it now?"

"From what Mr. Bukchoy had reported, the corpses would only be stolen at night. There has been no sign of the thief at daytime."

Sasori gritted his teeth, tightening his fists until his nails were digging into his palms. "I'm coming with you."

"Sasori, it's better if you stay at the inn with Haruka and Kimi-"

"I insist."

Hotoka closed his eyes and sighed deeply at the puppeteer's stubborness. "Sasori, this enemy that we're facing is not an ordinary shinobi. He is perhaps in the same level of a jonin. If you join me on my search for him, it will lead you to danger."

"Sensei, I didn't come here to guard some old inn. I'm here to catch the thief and I won't stop until I get my hands on him."

"Listen, Sasori. You cannot go with me. This mission isn't supposed to be listed as a C-rank one. This is a B-rank mission. It's already bad enough that I'm letting you all stay here today. I should have cancelled this and sent you and your friends home."

"Do you think we would go home and leave this business unsettled?" Sasori said. "We're not kids, sensei. We came here to catch the thief, not because this is a C-rank mission."

Hotoka looked at Sasori's scowling face and raised his eyebrow. "You didn't seem so persistent about this when we arrived here today," he said. "Is it because of what happened to Haruka last night?"

Sasori's shoulders immediately tensed at this and Hotoka was sure he had hit the right spot. Smiling to himself, Hotoka placed his right hand gently on Sasori's head and patted it.

"I know you feel terrible for letting her get hurt. But it's not your fault. If anyone was to blame, it should be me."

"No, sensei. You don't understand. I –"

"It's getting dark. You should head back to the inn and rest with everyone."

"No, I-"

"Sasori, that's an order."

Sasori sighed, knowing that it would be useless to argue against his sensei. He merely nodded and headed to the inn, grumbling under his breath.

* * *

The sky had once again darkened, coating the whole island with dense murkiness. With the moonlight blocked by the hovering clouds, and the streetlamps all off, the island seemed nothing but ghastly and bereft of life.

Three young shinobis – Sasori, Haruka, and Kimi Raikkichi – sat still in the living room of the old inn. The electricity was out and they had no choice but to gather together around the only source of light in the house, which was the old lantern Mr. Buckhoy had left them with. The eerieness of the place gave poor Haruka the creeps. She wanted to move closer to Sasori's side, but sensing the bad mood that he was having, she reconsidered her thought. She decided to scoot closer to Kimi Raikkichi instead.

The red-head immediately sent Haruka a cold glare, making her froze on the spot. He then stood out and walked toward the front door.

"Where are you going?" Haruka asked. The sound of the door slamming shut was the only reply she got.

Kimi Raikkichi gazed at the door, then at Haruka. "What's Aka-no-baka's problem?"

Haruka only shrugged and stared back at the lantern before her. She didn't know why Sasori was acting so strange. But she did know that she was the cause of it, even though she was not sure what she had done to make the puppeteer so upset.

"Kimi Raikkichi will go check on him."

"NO!" Haruka exclaimed in reflex, grabbing Kimi Raikkichi's arm. _'Stay with me! I won't survive in this total darkness all by myself!' _she wanted to say, but she couldn't get the words out.

"What's wrong, Haruka-chan? Why can't Kimi Raikkichi go check on Aka-no-baka?"

"Because..." she struggled to find the right words to express her fear of darkness without humiliating herself. "I... will go after him."

"Ah, Kimi Raikkichi sees! Okay then, Haruka-chan go ahead, Kimi Raikkichi will stay here to guard the inn."

'_What? So you're gonna leave me alone out there to bring Sasori back? Sheesh Kimi-kun, I thought you were a gentleman!'_ Haruka thought frantically, but nodded her head in response. She wondered why her body was contradicting what she had on her mind.

Dragging herself toward the front door, she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her, staring in fright at the dark scenery in front of her. She squinted her eyes and looked around for any trace of red head in sight, but all she could spot was the dark buildings and empty streets.

A rustling noise came from the bushes and Haruka jumped in shock. She grabbed a random stick near her foot and held her guard, eyeing the bushes warily. "W-who's there?" she called out, ready to throw the stick at whoever it was behind the bushes if they turned out to be an enemy.

Much to her relief, a familiar little white rabbit hopped out from behind the bushes and stopped a few feet ahead of her. Haruka sighed and dropped the stick she was holding to the ground. "You scared me! I thought you were the thief from yesterday!"

The rabbit looked up at Haruka and smiled. "I'm sorry, Haruka-chan. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Nah, it's alright," Haruka shrugged it off. "Anyway, I'm gonna go look for Sasori now. You stay here and be a good talking rabbit, okay?" she said before turning around and walked off to find her best friend. But before she could even take a single step, she realized what she had said a few seconds ago.

"_Stay here and be a good __talking__ rabbit, okay?"_

'_Talking...?' _she froze. "Wait a minute...!" she turned around to look at the rabbit before her. "Did you just talk?"

"Yup!" said the rabbit, which almost caused Haruka to faint on the spot. "What? Didn't you know that I could talk?"

Haruka could only shook her head at this.

"Odd... I thought Emmi has already told you about it."

"W-What?" Haruka asked. "What does my grandma have to do with this?"

"That woman... always leaving out important informations..." the rabbit said, hopping closer to Haruka. "We have a lot to talk about, Haruka-chan. And by the way, I'm Usagi. It's nice to finally meet you properly!"

"Y-yeah..." the girl trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Now then..." Usagi continued, "Where shall I begin my story?"

"So you're saying that my mother used to be your owner?" Haruka asked. She was sitting below one of the trees near the inn with Usagi on her lap. "And that now you belong to me?"

"Yup!" Usagi chirped

"But how... how did you find me here? I mean, here on this island? And didn't you run away from me when I saw you inside the forest?"

"Oh, that..." Usagi laughed nervously. "I figured it would be better to lead you towards the corpses I found in the woods than to tell you about it. I knew you would freak out if I suddenly came talking to you."

"I guess you have a point," the brunette scratched her head, still trying to register everything she had heard from the rabbit. "You haven't answered my first question though."

The rabbit suddenly turned silent as he gazed toward the sky, seemed to be lost in thoughts. "I didn't come here and found you, Haruka-chan," he whispered. "You're the one who came here and found _me_."

* * *

_Flashback_

* * *

Usagi was hopping through the dark forest at night, heading to a small house that resides in the middle of it. His boss was hopping ahead of him with Sayuri on his back, carrying baby Haruka in her arms. They did not have much time to find Emi and escape from the village as soon as possible.

"We're almost there," Yato - the giant rabbit - grunted, fastening his pace.

Usagi had a little trouble keeping up with his boss, but he managed to. It wasn't long until they reached the deepest part of the woods, halting in front of a small old house. Usagi hurriedly ran toward the front door and knocked on the door. "Emi baa-sama! Emi baa-sama! Open the door!"

An old woman in her 50's pushed the door open a mere seconds later, hitting Usagi on the face and sending him down to the ground. "Oh my! Usagi-chan, are you okay?" the old woman asked, helping the little rabbit back to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm alright," the rabbit replied, rubbing his nose lightly. "Anyway, that's not important! Right now, you have to leave this island with Sayuri-san and her baby!"

"Hee? Leave the island? But why? I love this island!" the old woman whined, stomping her foot on the ground like a five-year old.

"This is urgent, Emi-san. The Hinote clan are attacking the village, Tasuki and the others are fighting them right now. He told me to escort you three out of the village as fast as possible," Yato added.

"Hinote Clan?" Emi barked. "What are those filthy rascals doing in our village?"

"I don't know! They came all of the sudden! We were not prepared at all!" little Usagi cried, his eyes started to glisten in the dark. "Now come on! You guys have to leave this place at once!"

"No way, I'm going to the village to aid my son!"

"Please, mother, you have to listen!" Sayuri finally snapped, hopping off Yato's back with Haruka in her arms. "You must take Haruka with you and escape from this island. You are my only hope. Haruka has to live."

"But what about you?"

"Do not worry, mother. I'll be alright," Sayuri smiled, handing her baby to Emmi. "Take care of your granddaughter, okay?"

The old woman hesitated a bit, taking Haruka into her arms. "Sayuri-chan..."

"Go. Take her with you."

Looking at her daughter-in-law with sorrowful eyes, the old woman nodded and dashed toward the direction of the harbour with her grandaughter in her arms.

Usagi watched as Emmi disappeared from view. He was about to ask his boss what they were going to do next, when he heard the giant rabbit whispered : "I'm sorry, Usagi. But this is for your own good."

He then felt a sharp pain on the back of his head before finding himself enveloped with complete darkness.

* * *

Haruka looked at the silent rabbit expectantly, waiting for him to finish his story. "What happened after that?"

"I don't know exactly what happened. When I woke up and got back to the village... everything was... gone."

"Gone?" Haruka asked. "What do you mean 'gone'? What happened to everyone?"

"The hinote clan burned the whole village to crisp, leaving absolutely nothing there."

The brunette girl felt her heart skip a beat, her lower lip quivering in shock and sadness. "What about... my parents...?"

"Your father sacrificed himself by using the forbidden technique and killed the Hinote clan after they burned down the village."

"Forbidden technique?"

"Yes. He turned himself into a large tree, growing out giant roots that slayed all the hinote clans that were on this island," Usagi explained. "Those roots later growed into more trees and formed woods that have surrounded this island until now."

Haruka's eyes widened, shock at the information she received from the rabbit. Her dad had sacrificed himself for everyone in the village, including her. Then she was reminded of her mother. "What about my mom?"

Usagi seemed to hesitate a bit before saying, "She didn't make it either. She was killed in the battle, not long after you left the island. That's what triggered your father into using his final technique."

Haruka fell silent. Her head felt a bit heavy from receiving so much information in less than an hour. She hugged herself tightly, finding a whimper escaped her lips. She had always know that her parents were deceased, but finding out how they precisely died made her feel so grief-stricken.

"I'm sorry, Haruka-chan. I couldn't do anything to save your parents," Usagi apologized, patting on Haruka's arm. "I heard about the story from Yato. He apologized for not being able to save everyone either. Ever since that time, he had never come back to this village, ever."

Haruka looked at Usagi. "So you've been alone all this time?"

The rabbit nodded.

"It must've been really hard for you, Usagi-chan..." Haruka whispered, extending her arms and pulling Usagi into a warm embrace. "But... you don't have to be alone anymore...! You can come live with me and my grandmother from now on."

Usagi's face lit up happily. "Really?"

"Yes," the brunette smiled. "On one condition."

"What is it? I'll do anything I can!"

Haruka set the rabbit down on the ground before standing up. "You have to take me to the Shokubutsu village first."

* * *

Yep, another long break. Ahahaha~  
I've written this chapter months ago. I have no idea why I haven't published it until now.  
Thank you for everyone who has reviewed/favorited this fic!


	17. The Grave

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto nor any of the characters in it. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Chapter 17**

**The Grave**

Haruka stepped into the clearing with her new rabbit friend by her side. She scanned around the area, trying to find something that could signify the place as an old village, but she found none. There were no house, no street – Only a giant tree standing tall in the middle of the green expanse.

"I guess you weren't kidding when you said they burned the whole place down," Haruka said. "There's nothing in here aside from that giant tree."

"Told you," Usagi retorted while hopping forward. Haruka followed behind him.

The both of them halted as they got in front of the tree. It was then Haruka noticed there was a stone placed right under the tree. "What is this?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. This is where Yato buried your mother's body," explained the rabbit.

"My… mother…?" Haruka asked to which Usagi nodded. She stepped closer to the tree and the tombstone, kneeling down before them with Usagi by her side. "If only I'd brought some flowers here with me…"

"What do you mean by 'brought some flowers'?"

"Well, there's no other meaning than what I said earlier, I could've brought some flowers with me and put it on the grave-"

"No, no, no! That's not the answer I was expecting from you!" Usagi shook his head, hopping around to face his friend. "We Shokubutsu's don't '_bring'_ flowers with us! We _grow_ them!"

Haruka raised her brown eyebrow at the fluffy bunny. "Um, yeah, I do grow them at home, but it'll take a long time before we can grow a-"

"Argh, another wrong answer! Honestly, you call yourself a Shokubutsu?" said Usagi while slapping his paws to his face. "Lemme show you. Just watch and learn."

Haruka observed closely as Usagi tapped his right hand on the ground, making the spot he was touching glowed slightly. When he removed it, a yellow flower emerged from the ground below.

Haruka's eyes widened at this. "How did you… but that's just… "

"You can't even do a simple flower summoning technique like this? Gosh, Haruka! I wonder what Emmi baa-sama has been teaching you this whole time!"

Ignoring Usagi's rhetorical question, Haruka extended her hand and lightly touched the bright petals of the flower, feeling the texture. "It's… it's a real flower!"

Usagi could only shake his head at this. "It's an extremely simple jutsu, really. All you have to do is concentrate your chakra on the palm of your hand and think of what flower you want to summon."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yep!" the white rabbit smiled. "Go ahead and try it yourself."

The brown head nodded excitedly, opening her palms and closing her eyes, concentrating on her energy. Her brows furrowed a bit as she thought of a flower to summon. A bright light emanated from both of her palms, before fading out and replacing itself with a stem of red rose. Haruka opened her eyes and beamed at the thing in her hand.

"Good job, Haruka-chan!" Usagi chirped as Haruka held the rose in her right hand. "So you like red roses, huh? Good taste!"

"Yeah, I've always liked red roses since they remind me a lot of…" Haruka paused mid-sentence as her mind drifted toward a certain redhead she had known from when she was a child. She felt her face heating up and she quickly shook the thoughts out of her head.

"Oooo your face is red! What were you thinking?" the rabbit asked, noticing Haruka's burning cheek.

"I-it's nothing!" Haruka added, tightening her hold on the rose in her hand. She winced when she gripped too hard, accidentally hurting herself with the sharp thorns on the stem of the flower. Dropping the flower on the ground, she cupped her right hand with her other one, attempting to stop the blood from trickling out.

"Are you alright, Haruka-chan?" Usagi asked, seeing the pain on her face.

"Yeah, I'm okay, it's only-"

"What are you doing here?" both Haruka and Usagi turned their heads around when they heard another voice joining in their conversation. Haruka's eyes widened slightly when she saw her childhood friend standing a few meters in front of her, staring down at her with his grey eyes, a frown etching its way across his face.

"Ahaha, hi there, Sasori!" Haruka waved, her smile soon faltering when she saw the stern look on the puppeteer's face.

"You do realize that the criminal is still lurking around on this island, don't you?" Sasori said, anger evident in his voice. "Do you wish to get yourself killed?"

Haruka gulped as her gaze locked with Sasori's cold one. She nudged Usagi with her knee, silently asking for some back up. The rabbit flinched and instead hid behind her legs.

"Do you know how dangerous it is to be walking around in the woods at the time like this?" the redhead continued, taking some steps closer to his childhood friend who was now gripping the rose tightly in her hands.

"I-I'm sorry, I guess I… forgot about that…" Haruka flinched a bit when she felt the thorns on the rose stem dug against the palm of her hands, opening new wounds on it, which didn't go unnoticed to Sasori's observant eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Haruka answered a bit too quickly, hiding her hands behind her, which only resulted in making her looking more suspicious than before.

"Let me see your hands."

"No!" the brunette girl retorted, turning around and preparing to dash away from her friend, only to fall flat on her face mid way when Sasori managed to pull on of her legs with his chakra string. She groaned, spitting some grass out of her mouth. "I really hate it when you do that!"

Sasori smirked smugly at this as he walked over to her now kneeling form, crouching before her and taking her hands in his. "You're bleeding."

"Uh-huh, you don't say," Haruka rolled her eyes at him but yelped when she felt Sasori squeezing her wounded hands in his. "Ouch! What was that for?!"

"For getting into so much trouble 2 days in a row," the red-head grunted, rummaging through his leg holster before taking out a roll of bandage from it. "Now hold still." He carefully wrapped the white layer over each of Haruka's hands.

Haruka peered at Sasori's face through her thick bangs, realizing that he was focusing intensely at bandaging her hand. His touch was soft and gentle and it caused some tingly sensation forming in Haruka's stomach. When Sasori was done with his work, he noticed that Haruka was staring at him and that made him raise an eyebrow at her.

"What?"

Haruka shook her head furiously while averting her gaze to the ground. "N-nothing."

Sasori wasn't buying it but decided to leave her at that. He stood up, extending a hand down towards his friend to pull her up with him. "Come on, let's get back to the inn."

"Wait, I still have something to do!" the brunette exclaimed, taking Sasori's hand and dragging him along with her to the giant tree that was located in the middle of the clearing. When they got there, Haruka immediately knelt down before the stone under the tree. Sasori was about to open his mouth to ask what she was doing, when he heard Haruka muttered, "This is where my parents were buried."

Sasori's eyes widened slightly when he heard the sudden information.

Usagi hopped next to Haruka, giving her the red rose she had dropped earlier. "Here, Haruka-chan."

"Thanks," Haruka smiled at her white-furred companion, placing the flower gently in front of her mother's tombstone.

"Wait, did that rabbit just talk?"

"Err yeah… it's a long story, really," Haruka scratched the back of her head as Sasori stared suspiciously at the rabbit behind Haruka's legs. "Let's just sit here for a while and I'll tell you all about it."

"We shouldn't be hanging out here for long. We don't know if the area is safe or not," Sasori responded after a moment of quiescence.

"Lighten up, Sasori. It's just gonna be a while," Haruka urged.

She took a seat next to the stone and leaned her back against the tree. Usagi hopped onto her lap and rested there as she stroke his white fur softly while patting the ground next to her with her free hand, motioning Sasori to sit beside her. The boy rolled his eyes at her before deciding to take her offer and sat next to her.

Haruka then began telling Sasori about how she met Usagi just some time ago and everything else that Usagi had told her regarding her past. Sasori kept quiet and listened intently as his friend clarified everything to him.

The both of them fell into silence after Haruka had finished telling her story, and the white rabbit on Haruka's lap had dozed off into dreamland. Haruka stared up into the sky, a soft smile grazing her lips. "You know, sitting under the tree at night like this reminds me of what happened years ago."

Sasori turned his head at her in question.

"Remember the time when you decided to give my first training session with you?" the brunette continued, closing her eyes to reminisce the old time with her friend.

* * *

**Flashback**

Seven-year-old Haruka sat under the maple tree in the middle of the deserted area of Sunagakure. It was late at night, and the air was cold and humid. Haruka could feel the breeze biting against her skin, making her shiver. She immediately hugged her knees closer to her chest in attempt to gain some warmth. Burying her head in her arms, small droplet of tears trickling from the corner of her eyes.

A faint sound of footsteps was heard but Haruka paid no attention to it. It wasn't long until the footsteps stopped walking and their owner now standing in front of the brunette girl, towering above her small crouched figure.

"I've been looking allover for you all day," a familiar voice said.

Haruka didn't reply and kept her head buried in her arms.

Sasori sighed, sitting down next to his sobbing friend, leaning his back on the tree behind him. "You shouldn't be thinking of what Hiragawa said. He's not worth it."

The brunette girl flinched a little, and Sasori knew he had hit the right spot.

Earlier today, a boy from their class, Hiragawa Yuu told Haruka that her dead parents would be so disappointed in her knowing that she was the worst student in their class. She couldn't throw the shuriken at her target, almost hitting the teacher instead. She could not control her chakra right and was therefore unable use her shadow clone technique. The teacher told her to train harder at home, to which she answered that she had already had. That was when Hiragawa decided to interfere.

"Just give up! You're not capable of being a ninja!"

"I am capable! I just need to train harder and-"

"Train harder? You've said that a thousand times already, but what's the result? Nothing! You're terribly slow at learning and you're a hindrance to the other students in our class!"

"No I'm not! I'm not a hindrance! I'm trying my best! Tomorrow I'll definitely be able to summon my shadow clone!"

"Stop making excuses! No matter what you do, you'll never be able to imp-!" Hiragawa said.

"Hiragawa-kun, that's enough," the sensei said. "You can all go home, now. Class dismissed."

All the students stampeded out of the classroom, including Haruka and Hiragawa. When Haruka made her way out of the school, Hiragawa suddenly blocked her path. Haruka looked up at the taller boy and tried to walk around him, but he continued to stand in her way.

"What do you want, Hiragawa?"

Hiragawa moved forward, causing Haruka to back up. "I want you to move to another class."

"What? Are you insane? Why would I move to another class?"

"Because you're a hindrance! Because of you, we're still stuck on learning bunshin no jutsu while the other classes already moved on to another jutsu!" the boy continued. "You're a disgrace to your clan! Your parents would be so disappointed in you when they find out about this!"

Haruka froze when she heard the words parents and disappointed in the same sentence. Covering her ears with her hands, she quickly ran pass Hiragawa, out of the school building and into the woods, not once looking back.

Now here she was, sitting below her favorite tree in Suna, crying her eyes out after her hard training in the woods today.

Sasori looked at his friend, whom was still refusing to face him, and put his hand on top of Haruka's head, gently patting it. "I thought I already told you that I hate seeing you cry. So stop it," He muttered.

After a while, Haruka finally looked up. Her swollen eyes widened when she saw her best friend's face, which was covered in small bruises and had a black eye on it. "Sasori! What happened to you?" she asked.

Sasori just shrugged. "I decided to give that stupid Hiragawa a piece of my mind," the boy said. "He wasn't exactly the easiest opponent to pick a fight with."

Hearing that, Haruka immediately teared up again.

"Didn't I tell you to stop crying already? What's wrong with you?" the redhead asked.

"You shouldn't have done that…" Haruka sniffled, "I never wanted you to get hurt because of me…"

"You mean this?" Sasori pointed at his black eye. "It's nothing. I've gotten worse bruises than this one."

"B-but still…"

Sasori sighed at her friend's stubbornness. He knelt before her and wiped her tears with his hands before tilting her face to look at his. "Listen. I know what Hiragawa said was true. You are lame and you can't do any jutsu right."

Haruka's face crumpled at this.

"However," the redhead continued. "That doesn't matter anymore because you still have time to improve. It might take more time for you to learn the techniques, but you'll get through with it."

"I have tried improving myself! It didn't work! No matter how many times I tried, I still suck at everything!"

"That's obviously because you didn't train with _me._"

Haruka raised her eyebrows at this. "Are you saying that you're willing to train me?"

Sasori shrugged his shoulders. "I normally don't train whiny girls like you," he said. "But I have to this time since I made a bet with Hiragawa."

"Bet? What bet?"

"If you managed to excel the shadow clone technique in 3 days, Hiragawa would be my slave for a week and vice versa."

"What?! How could you agree on such a bet?!"

"Because I know you won't let me down," the red head said, offering Haruka a small smile. "If you do, then…" he moved his face closer to hers and glared into her eyes. "I'll make sure to turn your life into a living hell. Do I make myself clear?"

Haruka audibly gulped at this. "Y-yes, sir!"

"Good," Sasori said as he stood up from the ground. "Come, the training starts now."

"What? Right now? But it's already 7 pm and we have school tomorrow and-" the look on Sasori's face immediately shut Haruka up. She gulped again and stood up, following her friend to the training ground.

**End of Flashback**

* * *

"I'd never forget the harsh training you gave me that time," Haruka flinched slightly, remembering what Sasori did in order to make her excel in her jutsu.

"You wouldn't have been able to graduate as a genin if it weren't for me."

"True," Haruka chuckled. "By the way, I don't remember ever seeing Hiragawa becoming your slave for a week. What happened?"

Sasori only smirked at this. Standing up, he dusted himself off before saying, "Come on. We'd better head back."

Haruka frowned at her unanswered question, but followed him anyway, holding the sleeping Usagi in her arms and walked back to the inn with him.

The old inn was quiet as Haruka and Kimi Raikkichi were fast asleep in their bedrooms. Sasori was lying on his bed, his gaze locked at the ceiling as he thought about what had really occurred after he beat up Hiragawa in the academy years ago.

* * *

**Flashback**

Sasori stood against the classroom door with his arms crossed, his face tightening into a scowl. He waited until everyone but Hiragawa was out of the room before walking towards Hiragawa's desk, glaring at the black-haired boy who had just finished putting his stuffs into his backpack.

"What?" Hiragawa asked, not seeming to understand why the quietest person in the class was glaring daggers at him for no reason.

"You made her cry."

"Wha, you mean, Haruka?" Hiragawa was taken aback at first, before snorting loudly. "She deserved that. You've gotta agree with me on this one, that girl is totally useless. She'll never become a shinobi no matter how hard she-"

_BAM!_

A loud smack was heard as Sasori's fist made contact with Hiragawa's pale cheek, sending the latter falling down onto the ground.

"Hey! What gives?" Hiragawa yelled, getting up on his feet and putting up a fighting stance.

"Make her cry again and next time it will be more than a punch," the redhead replied coldly.

"Why you…" Hiragawa growled under his breath. He lifted his own fist and charged at Sasori in full speed. "Take this!"

Sasori, being the ace student in his class, easily dodged the attacks sent at him. Minutes passed by with Hiragawa trying to land at least one punch on the puppeteer's face to no avail. He was soon out of breath and was gasping for breath. Sasori, on the other hand, still maintained his usual composed stance.

The redhead clicked his tongue blatantly, appearing disappointed by Hiragawa's inability to fight back. "And you said she was incompetent," he taunted, taking steps closer toward the panting boy. "Since I'm feeling really nice today, I'll give you a free pass to punch me on the face. Go on, I promise I won't punch back."

Hiragawa looked at Sasori weirdly at first, but complied nonetheless, and with all his remaining strength, punched Sasori on the left eye. Seeing that Sasori made no attempt to fight back, Hiragawa took this as a chance to strike. He managed to land a couple of punches on the puppeteer's body before he grew tired from overusing his muscle, and collapsed with his bottom hitting the ground.

Sasori watched as his opponent sat on the ground all out of energy. He smirked as he touched the bruise that had formed around his eye. "Now, I'm sure that we can both agree to never tell the teacher about this." He said. "Because however, if you do, you know which one of us will get the blame."

"H-huh… what do you mean by that?" Hiragawa asked. "You know I can easily tell sensei that you started all this. You'll definitely get detention and your grades will drop, and you'll no longer be the first in class!"

"True," Sasori continued. "But which one of us will more likely earn sensei's trust? You seem to forget the fact that I have more injuries than you are."

Hiragawa's eyes widened at this as he finally realized the meaning of Sasori's words. "You… you sly fox… darn you!"

Sasori merely chuckled at this as he looked down at the black-haired boy before him. He strode out towards the door before stopping briefly and added, "Remember what I said. The next time you make her cry, it will be more than just a punch."

With that, he finally left, leaving Hiragawa stared at his retreating figure, goose bumps forming allover the frightened boy's skin.

**End of Flashback**

* * *

Sasori grinned wickedly after recalling that past event. He then buried himself under his warm blanket, closing his eyes gently.

'_I can't believe Haruka hasn't found out about that already. There was no such bet. Besides, if there was, I wouldn't have possibly risked myself for losing and ending up being Hiragawa's slave for a week,'_ he thought before letting sleep took over him.

But deep inside, Sasori knew more than anyone that by punching a classmate without legitimate reasons and threatening that said classmate not to tell anyone, he was putting his reputation and grades at stake. Even without making a bet, he had already risked so much more just for his childhood friend.

* * *

Finally, another chapter. Really sorry for the long wait.  
I apologize if there is some grammatical error and spelling mistakes and lack of description in this chapter. I haven't written in a long time, I hope I'm not losing my touch. *sigh*

Happy belated Birthday to Sasori and Haruka. And also, Happy Birthday to me!


End file.
